BX5995=S64  S52 
Slaughter,  Philip,  1808-1890. 
Memorial  of  the  Rev.  George  Archibald  ! 

I  V.    xvl. 


A  MEMORIAL 


^ 


REY.  GEORGE  ARCHIBALD  SMITH,  A.M. 


BY 
/ 


PHILIP  SLAUGHTER,  D.D. 

Historiographer  of  the  Diocese  of  Virginia 


"  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed^  in  whom  is  no  guile  I  " 

— John  i.  47 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  WHITTAKER 

2  AND  3  BIBLE  HOUSE 


DEDICATION. 


To  the  Professors,  Alumni  and  Students  of  the  Episcopal 
Seminary  of  Virginia,  this  humble  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the 
eldest  son  of  the  Seminary  is  lovingly  inscribed.  The  types  of 
ministers  of  Christ  are  many  and  various.  Some  are  sons  of 
thunder,  and  others  still,  small  voices.  Some  are  transient 
meteors,  dazzling  the  eye  for  the  moment,  and  then  vanishing 
away  without  a  trace ;  others  shine  with  steady,  noiseless  rays. 
Some  are  impetuous  torrents,  carrying  all  before  them  ;  others 
are  gentle  rills,  running  underground,  occasionally  coming  to 
the  surface  in  springs  of  living  waters,  beautifying  and  enliven- 
ing the  landscape— poor  in  spirit,  pure  in  heart,  meek  in  mien, 
patient  in  tribulation,  rejoicing  in  hope,  instant  in  prayer,  dis- 
tributing to  the  necessity  of  saints,  and  thinking  not  of  their 
own,  but  of  the  things  of  others,  enduring,  believing,  hoping, 
loving  and  blessing,  and  thus  attesting  themselves  to  be  the  chil- 
dren of  God  in  the  midst  of  a  wicked  and  perverse  generation, 
among  whom  they  shine  as  lights  in  the  world.  Of  these  latter 
types  was  our  Virginia  patriarch,  who  being  dead  yet  speaketh. 
That  we  who  are  alive  and  remain  may  heed  his  words  and  fol- 
low his  example  as  he  followed  Christ,  is  the  prayer  of 

Your  friend  and  brother. 

The  Authoe. 


MEMORIAL 


Rev.  George  A.  Smith,  son  of  Hugh  and  Eliza- 
beth Watson  Smith,  born  November  20,  1802 ;  died 
June  28,  1889;  married  February  14,  1825,  Ophelia 
Ann,  daughter  of  Isaac  Hite  Williams,  the  eminent 
lawyer  of  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  and  his  wife,  Lucy 
Coleman,  daughter  of  Philip  Slaughter,  officer  of  the 
Revolution,  and  his  wife,  Margaret  French,  daughter 
of  Col.  French  Strother,  member  of  Convention 
1788-89  and  of  Assembly  and  Senate  of  Virginia  for 
thirty  years. 

Issue  of  Rev.  George  A.  Smith  and  his  wife, 
Ophelia  Williams  Smith  : 

1.  Isaac  Williams  Smith,  captain  of  civil  engineers, 
assistant  to  Gen.  Emery,  Northeastern  Boundary ; 
assistant  engineer  and  astronomer,  survey  of  parallel 
between  Creek  and  Cherokee  Indians,  under  Captains 
Sitgrave  and  Woodruff,  U.  S.  A. ;  assistant  astrono- 
mer and  assistant  on  survey  of  parallel  between  Iowa 
and  Minnesota,  Andrew  Talcott,  chief  engineer; 
assistant  engineer  on  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  Cali- 
fornia, with  Col.  Williamson  and  Gen.  Parke,  U.  S.  A. ; 
assistant  to  Major  Bache  in  constructing  lighthouses  in 
Strait  of  Fuca  ;  division  engineer  on  Imperial  Mexican 
Railroad  ;  engineer  on  hydraulic  works  at  Tepis,  also 


Western  Pacific  and  Northern  Pacific  Railroads.  But 
his  greatest  achievement  was  as  chief  engineer  and 
superintendent  (1871-1873)  of  the  Williamette  Falls 
Canal  and  Lock  in  Oregon.  His  skill  and  energy  in 
the  work  elicited  the  commendations  of  the  president 
of  the  company  and  engineers  of  the  army.  Captain 
Smith  constructed  many  other  works,  as  the  water- 
works at  Tacoma,  W.  T.,  and  is  now  engaged  in  like 
work  at  Portland,  Oregon.  Captain  Smith's  chief 
literary  work  is  entitled  ''  Theory  of  Deflections,  Lati- 
tudes and  of  Departures,  with  Special  Reference  to 
Curvilinear  Surveys  and  Alignment  of  Railroad 
Tracks."  * 

2.  Mary  Watson,  wife  of  Rev.  R.  Dunbar  Brooke, 
of  Monroe,  Michigan.  Issue,  four  sons  and  three 
daughters. 

3.  Eliza  Williams. 

4.  Lucy  Elizabeth,  wife  of  J.  Douglas  Corse. 
Issue,  four  daughters. 

5.  George  Hugh,  Colonel,  62d  Regiment,  Im- 
boden's  Brigade,  C.  S.  A. ;  lawyer  of  Los  Angeles, 
Senator,  and  reporter  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  author  of  one  or  more  learned  law  works. 
Married  Susan  Glassell,  widow  of  Col.  George  S. 
Patton,  killed  in  the  battle  of  Winchester,  Va.  Col. 
Smith  often  commanded    the  brigade,  and   his  com- 


*  This  notice  is  without  the  knowledge  of  Captain  Smith,  and  only  to 
the  best  of  the  author's  knowledge  and  belief. 


mission  of  brigadier-general  was  written  just  as  the 
war  ended.     Issue,  one  daughter  and  one  son. 

6.  Eleanor  Eltinge,  died  1871. 

7.  Isabella  Keiglitley. 

8.  Agnes  Grey,  died  in  infancy. 

9.  Henry  Martyn,  Captain,  62d  Regiment, 
C.  S.  A. ;  lawyer,  judge,  and  brilliant  advocate,  Los 
Angeles,  Cal.  Married  Adeline  Wood  worth.  Issue, 
one  daughter. 

The  present  writer,  in  an  article  on  the  "  Old- 
Time  Virginia  Conventions,"  in  the  Seminary  Maga- 
zine of  last  year,  referring  to  the  Diocesan  Convention 
of  1828,  said: 

"  Of  all  the  ministers  in  that  body  only  three 
survived,  namely,  the  Rev.  Gr.  A.  Smith,  the  Rev. 
Ebenezer  Boyden,  and  the  Rev.  Parke  F.  Berkeley. 
"  These  venerable  brethren,"  he  added,  "  yet  linger  in 
the  horizon  like  evening  stars,  shining  with  a  mellow 
light,"  which  he  hoped  was  "  the  token  of  a  glorious 
morrow."  Within  a  few  short  months  after  these 
words  were  written,  Mr.  Berkeley's  light  went  out. 
And  now  that  of  Mr.  Smith  has  set,  leaving  Mr. 
Boyden  the  sole  survivor  of  the  Council  of  1828,  when 
so  many  brethren  in  the  bud  of  youth,  in  the  bloom 
of  manhood,  and  the  fruitfulness  of  autumn,  took 
sweet  counsel  and  walked  to  the  house  of  God  in 
company. 

In  the  catalogues  of  the  Episcopal  Theological 
Seminary  of  Virginia,  the  name  of  the  Rev.  George 


Smith  has  been  for  many  years  standing  alone  at  the 
head  of  the  list,  ^s  the  sole  representative  of  the  class 
of  1823,  when  the  Seminary  was  yet  in  the  nursery,  in 
Alexandria,  ere  it  had  been  transplanted  to  its  present 
site,  whence  seed  have  been  sown  broadcast  through- 
out the  Domestic  and  Foreign  field,  yielding  such  a 
fruitful  harvest.  When  one  turns  over  the  pages  of 
the  catalogue,  he  is  startled  to  see  them  studded  with 
stars.  In  almost  every  class  there  is  a  little  constel- 
lation of  asterisks,  denoting  that  the  person  to  whose 
name  it  is  prefixed  has  departed  this  life.  Of  the  ^um 
total  of  seven  hundred  and  ninety-five  Alumni,  three 
hundred  are  dead.  These  soldiers  of  Christ  died  on 
the  field  of  battle  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness 
of  this  world,  some  of  them  within  the  entrenched 
camp  of  Satan,  and  they  are  sleeping  sweetly  under 
the  jDalm-trees  of  Africa,  and  in  other  cemeteries  at 
home  and  abroad.  Of  all  these,  our  friend  was  the 
senior  in  service,  and  nothing  could  have  been  more 
fitting  than  that  he  should  have  been  called  to  pre- 
side over  the  Alumni  at  their  annual  reunion,  as  he 
has  done  for  half  a  century.  When  the  next  cata- 
logue appears  the  fatal  asterisk  will  be  prefixed  to  his 
name,  denoting  that  he  has  ceased  from  his  labors  and 
has  entered  into  rest.  There  are  loving  hearts  who 
would  not  willingly  let  his  memory  die.  He  being 
dead  yet  speaketh  in  the  life  he  lived,  and  what  could 
be  more  expressive  than  speech  from  beyond  the 
grave.     We  would,  therefore,  if  possible,  reanimate 


him  by  reproducing  some  events  of  his  life  while  he 
walked  and  talked  to  us  on  earth.  In  this  we  have  a 
precedent  in  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
who  called  the  roll  of  patriarchs  and  prophets  and 
others  "of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy,"  who 
died  in  the  faith.  He  thought  it  was  wholesome  to 
realize  that  we  were  encompassed  with  so  great  a 
cloud  of  witnesses,  as  an  injunction  to  "run  with 
patience  the  race  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith."  But  in  view  of  what 
was  printed  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  by  the  sub- 
ject of  this  memorial,  we  must  beware  of  writing  a 
mere  eulogy.  Pie  then  wrote :  "  It  is  delightful  and 
consoling  to  think  that  the  righteous  shall  be  held  in 
everlasting  remembrance.  But  biographies  are  often 
mere  eulogies,  and  as  such  do  little  good.  They  should 
be  written  for  the  benefit  of  the  living.  The  dead  can 
be  neither  benefitted  nor  gratified  by  the  ephemeral 
breath  of  human  praise,  unless  as  it  must  appear  to 
immortals  in  itself,  and  as  the  tribute  of  imperfect 
beings,  incompetent  to  pass  judgment  upon  su2:)erior 
beings  in  an  exalted  state.  But  if  written,  as  they 
should  be,  as  impartial  narratives — making  the  reader 
familiar  with  the  talking  and  acting  man,  in  little  as 
in  great  matters — they  may  be  improving  in  the  same 
way  as  the  society  of  great  and  good  men  is."  With 
this  warning  staring  me  in  the  face,  I  dare  not  per- 
petrate a  highly  wrought  eulogium.  I  shall  rather 
aim  to  describe  the  "  talking  and  acting  man,  in  little 


10 

as  in  great  matters,"  upon  the  basis  of  Lis  own  diary 
and  other  authentic  data,  in  manuscript  and  in  print, 
and  the  testimonials  of  eye-witnesses  of  his  life,  which 
was  in  its  later  years  chiefly  "  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 
The  diary,  written  as  a  spiritual  exercise,  and  only  for 
his  own  eye  and  the  eye  of  Grod,  is  a  sort  of  stethe- 
sco^^e,  revealing  the  beatings  of  his  heart. 

George  Archibald  Smith  was  born  in  the  city  of 
Alexandria,  Va ,  on  November  20,  1802.  His  father, 
Hugh  Smith,  was  a  native  of  England,  and  settled  in 
Alexandria  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. He  had  been  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  the  old  country,  and  did  not  approve  Presby- 
terian doctrines,  but  he  attended  with  his  wife  the 
congregation  of  Kev.  James  Muir,  D.D.,  who  became 
the  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Alex- 
andria in  1789,  and  after  an  exemplary  ministry  of 
thirty-one  years,  died,  and  was  buried  under  the  altar 
of  his  church.  Rev.  G.  A.  Smith  was  baptized  in 
infancy  by  Dr.  Muir.  Mr.  Hugh  Smith  was  a  mer- 
chant, who,  by  spotless  integrity  and  capacity  for 
business,  gained  the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens, 
and  accumulated  a  handsome  fortune,  which  he  dis- 
pensed bountifully  for  the  benefit  of  his  children,  who 
cherished  for  him  the  most  profound  reverence  and 
affection.  His  son  George  often  said  that  it  was 
through  the  love  of  his  father  on  earth  that  he  learned 
to  know  the  love  of  his  Father  in  Heaven. 


11 

George  Smith's  mother  was  a  native  of  Ireland, 
and  was  the  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon, 
a  Scotch  divine  who  was  invited,  early  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, to  a  professorship  in  an  American  college,  but 
declined  because  "  his  wife  was  afraid  to  live  in  the 
American  wilderness." 

The  life  of  man  may  be  likened  to  the  course  of 
a  sti'eam,  which  is  influenced  by  things  in  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  The  direction  and  qualities  of  a  river 
depend  upon  the  source  from  which  it  springs,  the 
channel  through  which  it  flows,  the  investing  atmos- 
phere, the  sun  and  the  rain,  and  the  attraction  of 
o;ravitation — with  this  difference,  that  the  will  of 
man  can  overcome  nature,  as  the  engineer  by  digging 
new  channels  and  by  other  devices  can  change  the 
course  of  the  river.  But  the  will  of  man,  aided  by 
the  grace  of  God,  can  do  what  the  engineer  cannot — 
make  it  flow  back  towards  the  source.  Among  the 
coeflicients  in  shaping  man's  life  are  the  schools 
through  which  he  passes  and  the  books  which  he 
reads. 

SCHOOLS  AND  BOOKS. 

The  first  school  which  George  Smith  attended 
was  that  of  Mr.  Cohen,  in  Alexandria,  in  1809.  Mr. 
Charles  L.  Powell,  of  this  city,  was  also  a  pupil  of 
Mr.  Cohen,  and  recollects  him  as  of  short,  broad 
stature,  rather  formidable  to  small  boys  for  the  sever- 
ity of  his  discipline.     Mr.  Smith  remembered  a  screen 


12 

which  separated  the  boys  from  the  girls,  and  some  of 
the  former  were  bad  boys,  whose  influence  upon  him 
was  not  wholesome.  His  most  indelible  memory  was 
the  impression  made  upon  his  mind  by  the  good  ex- 
ample of  one  of  his  brothers,  and  how  he  longed  to  be 
like  him,  to  which  he  sometimes  referred,  as  an  in- 
stance of  the  influence  of  early  impressions  upon  one's 
whole  life. 

In  1811  he  was  removed  to  a  school  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Baltimore,  and  taught  by  a  Mr.  Pearce.* 
Here  they  had  morning  and  evening  prayers,  and  occa- 
sional preaching  in  the  school-room.  He  speaks  in  his 
diary  of  being  much  affected  by  a  rebuke  for  going  to 
sleep  at  prayers.  He  went  to  bed  in  tears,  and  in 
after  life  thought  what  a  blessing  it  would  have  been 
to  him  if  some  one  had  pointed  him,  when  thus  soft- 
ened and  sensitive,  to  the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh 
away  sin. 

After  the  lapse  of  a  year,  he  returned  to  Alex- 
andria and  entered  the  Academy,f  where  he  remained 
until  1815,  when  its  masters  were  Holbrook  and  Alli- 
son. Holbrook  reminded  some  of  the  boys  of  Irv- 
ing's  Ichabod  Crane  in  person,  and  Allison  is  remem- 
bered by  some  as    "a  small  man  of  vinegar  aspect." 

*  There  are  extant  amusing  letters  which  passed  between  him  and  his 
schoolmates,  George  Calvert  and  Taylor  Pyne,  full  of  jeu  cVesprits, 

f  The  cornerstone  of  this  academy  was  laid  by  Robert  Adam,  Master 
Mason,  September  7,  1785.  Washington  was  one  of  the  trustees,  and  en- 
dowed it  with  £1,000,  the  interest  to  be  devoted  to  the  "education  of 
orphans  and  other  poor  children."  It  is  on  Washington  Street  and  is  still 
in  use. 


13 

Mr.  Smith  said:  "With  my  last  teacher  (Hume)  at 
the  Academy,  I  had  great  advantages  for  learning  the 
languages,  but  my  aversion  to  study  and  want  of  ap- 
preciation of  my  opportunities  made  me  go  over  my 
Latin  and  Greek  with  an  unwilling  mind.  Up  to  this 
time  all  my  reading  was  in  novels  and  plays  ;  of  the 
former  were  those  of  Miss  Porter.^' 

In  November,  1815,  he  went  to  Mt.  Airy,  near 
Philadelphia,  and  staid  there  till  September,  1817. 
When  he  was  examined  by  Mr.  Constant  in  Virgil,  he 
said :  "  It  luckily  happened  that  he  chose  a  passage 
which  I  had  read  a  few  weeks  before.  Heretofore, 
being  but  thirteen  years  old,  I  had  never  studied.  I 
now  became  tolerably  diligent,  and  studied  geography, 
Le  Sage's  History,  and  the  use  of  the  globes — all  of 
which  I  soon  forgot.  With  Mr.  Patterson  I  also 
studied  arithmetic  and  astronomy  with  some  benefit, 
but  of  mathematics  I  could  learn  nothing,  not  even 
having  an  idea  of  their  end  or  utility.  French  and 
Spanish  occupied  much  of  my  time."  In  1817  he  re- 
turned to  Alexandria,  and  studied  algebra  and  Euclid 
with  Mr.  Burton,  a  teacher  of  mathematics.  He  had 
now  received  all  the  education  which  was  thought 
necessary  for  a  merchant,  for  which  he  was  designed. 

In  the  spring  of  1818  he  entered  his  father's 
store  to  learn  his  business.  "  While  correct  in  my 
outward  conduct,  I  had  no  proper  sense  of  religion. 
I  attended  the  theatre  often,  as  I  had  done  in  Phila- 
delphia, while  at  school  at  Germantown  (Mt.  Airy), 


14 

and  was  very  fond  of  siicli  amusements.  At  this  time 
I  went  with  my  cousin,  John  Smith,  to  hear  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Wilmer,  pastor  of  St.  Paul's,  and  preferring  his 
preaching  to  that  of  Dr.  Muir,  I  continued  to  go  there, 
also  attending  the  prayer-meetings  held  by  him  at  his 
own  house.  I  was  much  touched  by  one  of  his  ser- 
mons on  the  duty  of  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper.  I 
had  read  in  Ree's  Cyclopedia  some  objection  to  the  per- 
petuity of  the  Sacrament.  I  sent  a  note  to  Dr.  Wil- 
mer that  I  had  been  struck  by  his  views,  and  if  the 
Sacrament  was  of  perpetual  obligation,  it  was  plainly 
every  one's  duty  to  obey  the  command.  My  ob- 
jections were  answered  by  reference  to  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  11.  Corinthians.  He  asked  a  personal 
conference,  and  I  went  to  his  study  and  was  ex- 
amined by  him  in  the  qualifications  of  a  communicant 
prescribed  in  the  Church  Catechism.  The  only  points 
which  impressed  me  were  leading  a  new  life  and 
being  in  charity  with  all  men.  The  latter  I  thought 
I  possessed,  and  I  readily  promised  the  former.  My 
sins,  I  suppose,  being  in  my  estimation  very  slight,  I 
had  no  difficulty  in  saying  that  I  repented  of  them, 
and  in  professing  my  faith  in  Christ.  I  partook  of  the 
Sacrament  for  the  first  time  on  Christmas  Day,  1818, 
in  St.  Paul's  Church,  being  then  a  little  more  than 
sixteen  years  of  age.  This  was  a  new  era  in  my  life." 
This,  like  every  other  critical  period  in  his  life, 
was  marked  in  his  diary  by  humiliation  before  Grod, 
professions  of  penitence  for  the  past,  and  solemn  reso- 


15 

lutions  for  the  future.  While  a  model  of  good  de- 
meanor in  the  opinion  of  others,  he  was  in  his  own 
eyes  a  miserable  sinner,  ignorant  and  indolent,  and 
haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  "  wasted  time,  lost  opportu- 
nities, and  shameful  neglect  of  known  duty."  And 
yet,  when  Dr.  Wilmer,  who  discerned  the  good  that 
was  in  him  (which  was  hidden  from  himself  by  a  veil 
of  humility),  suggested  his  studying  for  the  ministry, 
he  readily  assented,  having,  as  he  says,  no  higher  con- 
ception of  the  office  than  as  a  field  of  usefulness,  and 
being,  perhaps,  dissatisfied  with  his  present  occupation. 
When  he  mentioned  the  subject  to  his  father,  the  lat- 
ter advised  that  he  should  go  to  college,  suspending 
his  decision  until  he  was  graduated. 

COLLEGE. 

In  May,  1819,  he  matriculated  in  Nassau  Hall, 
Princeton,  N.  J.,  entering  the  Freshman  class.  As  he 
had  made  no  preparation  for  examination,  he  was 
urged  by  H.  to  prepare  in  Greek.  Accordingly,  he 
read  three  of  Lucien's  Dialogues,  and  with  the  like  --^ 

good  luck  as  at  Belle  Air  (Germantown),  he  was 
taken  on  one  of  them,  and  he  verily  believed  that 
otherwise  he  would  have  failed.  It  may  be  of  interest 
to  some  to  learn  something  of  the  course  of  study  at 
that  date.  Others  may  pass  over  the  coming  para- 
graph. "  During  the  session  I  read  Xenophon's  Cyro- 
pedia  and  Horace's  Satires  and  Epistles.  The  next 
session  I  read  Homer,  with  the  Odes  of  Horace ;  and 


16 

ill  mathematics,  simple  and  quad  equations,  Simp- 
son's Euclid,  tlie  simj^lest  parts  of  conic  sections  and 
surveying,  then  special  trigonometry  and  projections  ; 
of  the  latter  I  never  understood  anything.  In  the 
classics  we  read  Louginus  and  Cicero  de  Oratore. 
Vinces'  Fluxions  were  part  of  the  M.  C.  senior  year. 
Cavallo's  Chemistry,  Witherspoon's  Philosophy,  Paley 
and  Logic.  I  looked  through  many  books,  but  not 
attentively,  and  left  college  far  below  what  I  should 
have  been."  Hewas  graduated  in  1821.  The  college 
record  reads,  "Georgius  Archibaldus  Smith,  A.M." 
It  is  curious  that  when  degrees  have  been  so  profusely 
conferred,  he  was  never  made  a  D.D.  by  his  Alma 
Mater.     It  must  have  been  from  inattention. 

Among  the  valued  friends  he  made  at  college  was 
Senator  Pierce,  Alfred  Sowers,  and  William  Krebs,*  of 
whom  he  often  spoke  with  affection.  But  he  thought 
himself  so  much  damaged  by  other  associations  that 
he  looked  upon  himself  as  so  backslidden  that  he 
ought  to  give  up  all  idea  of  the  ministry,  although  he 
had  not  been  guilty  of  any  overt  act  of  inconsistency. 
He  returned  to  Alexandria,  and  with  great  reluctance 
received  the  Communion  at  St.  Paul's.  In  November 
he  went  back  to  Princeton,  and  spent  three  months  in 


*  The  following  notes  are  from  the  college  catalogue  of  Princeton: 
Jacobus  Alfredus  Pierce,  inCong.Rerumpub.  Foed.  Repr.  et  Sen.;  Instit. 

Smiths.  Reg.;  in  Coll.  Wash.  Mar.  Ter.,  Leg.  Prof.,  LL.D.,  1859,  et  Coll. 

Sanct.  Jac.  Mar.  Ter.  1856. 

Alfredus  Augustus  Sowers,  A.M.,  Tutor,  1825. 

Qulielmus  Georgius  Krebs,  A.M.,  Reip.  Mar.  Ter.  Ker.  Circ.  Jurid. 


17 

the  theological  department.  He  attended  regularly 
the  prayer-meeting,  and  prayed  in  his  turn.  Feeling 
great  distress  of  mind,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Wilmer  ex- 
pressing his  fears  that  he  had  done  wrong  in  making 
a  profession  of  religion.  Dr.  Wilmer  commended  to 
him  Newton's  Letters,  which  gave  him  great  comfort. 
The  writer  has  Dr.  Wilmer's  letter,  and  it  is  a  notable 
example  of  the  wisdom  and  tenderness  with  which 
this  faithful  pastor  cared  for  the  lambs  of  his  flock. 
"  I  remember,"  said  Mr.  Smith,  "  the  first  satisfactory 
views  I  formed  of  the  plan  of  redemption,  and  re- 
ceived consolation.  With  Alfred  Sowers,  who  was 
then  first  impressed,  I  took  sweet  counsel.  We  com- 
menced our  spiritual  voyage  together,  and  may  neither 
of  us  make  final  shipwreck." 

In  May,  1822,  he  went  to  the  General  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  in  New  York.  Of  the  books  he  studied  he 
mentions  Shuckford's  Connections,  Butler's  Analogy, 
Faber  on  the  Spirit,  Newcomb's  Harmony,  of  which 
last  he  said  he  retained  nothing ;  Prideaux,  the  Epis- 
tles, Ernesti's  Interpretation,  with  Dr.  Turner,  Hebrew 
Bible,  Pearson  on  the  Creed  to  the  Descent  into  Hell 
(here  he  says  he  laid  down  the  book  to  pray),  Hors- 
ley,  Mosheim,  Milton,  Cooper,  Young  and  Thompson  ; 
passed  an  examination  with  the  class.  In  August  he 
visited  Catskill  on  a  packet,  reaching  there  from  New 
York  after  a  short  passage  of  twenty-one  hours. 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Smith's  father  (one  of  the 
wisest  letters  I  ever  read)  tells  him  that  in  the  event 


18 

of  Dr.  Wilmers  leaving  St.  Paul's  Church,  as  he  then 
contemplated,  he  looked  to  him  to  fill  his  place.  The 
father  says  in  this  letter :  "  However  much  you  might 
be  gratified  in  this  station,  if  you  could  be  qualified  to 
take  charge  of  such  a  congregation  at  your  early 
period  of  life,  you,  at  the  time  of  your  ordination, 
would  be  very  young.  In  the  beginning  you  would 
be  highly  commended,  but  in  ability  and  in  constitu- 
tion you  might  find  a  difliculty  in  sustaining  this  char- 
acter. I  think  your  usefulness  could  be  better  estab- 
lished by  avoiding  a  settled  place  for  a  year  or  two,  or 
a  few  months,  and  it  might  be  that  by  practice  and  by 
exercise  your  confidence  and  knowledge  would  be  im- 
proved as  much  as  your  habit  of  body  strengthened. 
I  have  gone  into  this  explanation  that  you  may  be 
prepared  for  your  course,  which  is  at  your  own  option. 
I  should  prefer  maintaining  you,  with  your  careful 
habits,  for  a  few  years,  spent  in  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge,  rather  than  you  should  station  yourself 
too  soon,  as  regards  your  health  or  talents ;  but 
above  all,  I  would  guard  you  against  listening  to 
the  tempting  suggestion  which  may  be  made  to  induce 
you  to  settle  here  too  soon.  In  this  country,  or  in  a 
visit  to  your  relatives  in  England,  you  may,  with  the 
aid  of  the  Almighty,  continue  to  improve  yourself, 
while  I  trust  that  the  stability  you  have  obtained 
would  ensure  you  from  all  temptation  to  evil,  even 
from  the  multitude  of  them  you  would  have  to  en- 
counter." 


19 

In  the  diary  which  recorded  his  daily  experience 
in  view  of  entering  the  ministry,  his  passing  through 
the  Seminary  reminds  one  of  the  progress  of  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim  from  the  City  of  Destruction,  through  the 
Valley  of  Humiliation  and  of  the  Shadow  of  Death, 
encountering  Apollyon  and  Giant  Despair  in  his 
Doubting  Castle,  and  resisting  the  wiles  of  Mr. 
Wordly-wise-man,  and  Fearful  and  Heedless,  and  all 
the  other  imps  which  haunt  the  Way  of  Holiness,  with 
occasional  glimpses  of  the  Delectable  Mountains,  and 
times  of  refreshing  in  the  Land  of  Beulah.  Penitent 
confessions  of  sin  and  wailings  over  wasted  time  alter- 
nate with  new  resolutions,  agonizing  cries  for  pardon 
and  peace,  and  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteous- 
ness, and  a  single  eye  to  the  glory  of  God.  "  I  will, 
I  must,"  he  exclaims  "  change  my  course.  I  fear  that 
I  have  never  entirely  surrendered  to  the  will  and 
service  of  God.  I  have  held  back  something,"  etc. 
"  Though  I  fall  ten  thousand  times,  I  must  rise  again ; 
though  I  be  conquered,  I  must  learn  to  fight  by  my 
defeat.  God  has  promised  that  sin  shall  not  have 
dominion  over  me,  and  though  He  slay  me  yet  will  I 
trust  Him.  The  great  question  now  is.  Shall  I  enter 
the  ministry  ?  I  have  considered  it  in  a  general  way, 
but  I  must  set  apart  special  seasons  for  pondering  it. 
Another  point  which  weighs  heavily  upon  me,  and 
with  God's  help  I  must  and  will  consider,  viz. :  Am 
I  resolved  to  know  nothing  among  men  but  Jesus 
Christ  and  Him  crucified  ?     Am  I  sincerely  resolved 


20 

to  give  myself  wholly  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  ? 
I  must  weigh  in  their  full  meaning  the  questions  in 
the  Ordination  service,  and  ask  myself  before  the  All- 
knowing  Jehovah,  will  I  answer  them  as  I  am  re- 
quested to  do  ?  This  shall  be  the  chief  employment 
of  the  vacation,  to  which  everything  else  must  give 
way." 

The  idea  of  devoting  vacation  to  such  heart- 
searching  is,  we  fancy,  somewhat  novel,  and  it  may  be 
that  all  this  so  far  transcends  the  experience  of  many 
of  us,  that  we  may  be  tempted  to  set  it  aside  as 
something  abnormal,  the  bitter  fruit  of  a  morbid  sen- 
sibility. Before  we  thus  conclude,  it  may  be  well  to 
ask  if  the  tendency  of  the  age  is  not  rather  towards 
the  opposite  extreme,  and  that  too  many,  moved  by  a 
mixture  of  secular  motives  (of  which  they  are  perhaps 
unconscious),  "  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread." 
The  Miserere  of  David,  the  pangs  of  Paul,  the  bitter 
cry  of  the  blessed  Saviour,  and  the  flight  of  Gregory 
and  Ambrose  when  called  to  take  up  the  onus  formi- 
dandum  of  the  ministry  should  make  one  pause  and 
ask  if  we  have  built  upon  the  sands,  instead  of  digging 
down  to  the  solid  rock  for  a  foundation  that  will 
stand  when  the  floods  beat  upon  the  building. 

August  26,  1823,  he  said:  "I  have  this  evening 
moved  to  Dr.  Wilmer's,  and  am  rejoiced  at  the  pros- 
pect of  renewing  my  studies  with  so  many  privileges," 
etc.  "  Oh,  the  length,  and  breadth,  and  height,  and 
depth    of   the  love   of  God  in   Christ   Jesus  !  "     He 


21 

seems  to  have  had  a  special  pleasure  in  his  quiet  morn- 
ing devotions,  rising  at  five  o'clock  that  he  might  have 
time  for  them.  The  sensitiveness  of  his  conscience  is 
somewhat  amusingly  illustrated  by  this  naive  record  : 
"Having  set  my  clock  for  five,  and  not  hearing  the 
'  'larum,'  I  slept  until  half-past  six  o'clock.  I  did  not 
think  myself  censurable  for  this,  but  it  was  a  great  mis- 
fortune, for  my  morning  devotions  had  been  profitable 
and  delightful.  I  sought  the  Lord  early  and  I  found 
Him.  But  now  I  have  only  time  for  a  short  prayer, 
expecting  to  extend  it  during  the  day,  which  I  did 
not."  ^ 

On  December  13,  18|{3,  he  reached  Richmond  by 
way  of  Norfolk,  and  was  ordained  deacon  on  the  16th 
by  Bishop  Moore,  in  the  Monumental  Church.  Re- 
turning to  Alexandria,  he  preached  his  first  sermon  on 
the  next  Sunday,  from  Hebrews  xiii.  16,  a  charity 
sei'mon  for  the  Female  Sewing  Society.  And  Christ- 
mas Day  he  preached  on  John  i.  27.  The  subject  of 
these  sermons — Charity  and  Humility — was  the  key- 
note to  the  melody  of  his  after  life.  The  ensuing 
winter  was  spent  in  Fredericksburg,  assisting  Mr. 
McGuire,  who  was  disabled  by  chills  and  fever,  in  St. 
George's  Church.  He  reached  there  December  27, 
and  preached  on  Sunday  his  Christmas  sermon,  and  in 
the  evening  from  Lamentations  iii.  39. 

On  the  margin  of  his  diary  is  this  significant 
N.  B.:  "  Sunday,  December  28,  p.m.,  is  memorable  from 
a  visit  of to  Mr.  McGuire,  when  I  met  her  for  the 


22 

first  time."  Of  this  more  anon.  January  1  he  records 
a  sad  lamentation  over  wasted  time,  etc.,  adding :  "  It 
may  be  said  of  me  this  year,  ^  Thou  shalt  die.'  If  so, 
God's  will  be  done ;  but  if  I  inhabit  this  tenement  of 
clay  for  fourscore  years,  may  I  make  the  long,  long 
pilgrimage  with  patience  and  resignation  ;  but  when- 
ever my  time  comes,  may  I  be  able  to  say  '  to  depart 
and  be  with  Christ  is  far  better.'  Oh,  my  dear  Krebs, 
more  than  a  year  has  passed  since  thou  hast  known 
fully  the  realities  of  eternity  ! " 

Then  follow  a  few  items  more  like  the  experience 
of  some  of  us  than  the  deep  heart-searchings  before 
cited:  "January  22,1824. — I  began  my  sermon,  II. 
Kings  xvii.  30,  Wednesday  night.  The  introduction 
took  me  until  half-past  eleven  o'clock.  In  the  morn- 
ing Mr.  McGuire  suggested  that  I  ought  to  say  some- 
thing about  the  New  Year.  To  get  into  the  way  of 
it,  I  read  two  of  Davies'  sermons  and  one  of  Allison's 
on  the  beginning  of  the  century.  I  chose  the  text 
Jer.  xxviii.  17,  and  wrote  some  pages  with  zeal.  After 
dining  very  heartily,  I  thought  I  had  better  go  back 
to  the  sermon  I  had  first  begun.  I  lost  as  much  time  in 
halting  between  the  two  as  would  have  sufficed  to 
finish  them.  But,  alas  !  I  had  been  idling  and  amusing 
myself.  I  was  so  ashamed  and  grieved  that  I  resolved 
next  time  to  begin  my  sermon  on  Tuesday,  but  put  it 
off  till  Friday,  when  I  wrote  half  a  one  on  Romans  v. 
21,  laid  it  aside  and  began  another  on  Psalm  iv.  6  ; 
wrote  half  of  that,  and  was  so  much  in  the  dark  as  to 


23 

the  rest  that  I  thought  I  should  have  to  fall  back  on 
one  of  Simeon's  skeletons.  But  I  resumed  one  and 
finished,  such  as  it  was,  by  nine  o'clock  ;  put  off  fin- 
ishing the  other,  and  finally  preached  extempore." 

During  this  travail  there  had  been  a  fire  which 
burned  Mr,  McGuire's  house,  and  which  broke  out 
just  after  they  had  sung  "  Grateful  Notes "  at  Mr. 
Johnston's.  A  few  nights  afterwards  the  choir  met  at 
Mr.  Park's,  and  just  as  they  had  begun  "  Grateful 
Notes,"  there  was  another  cry  of  fire.  This  was  all 
very  trying  to  a  newly  fiedged  divine,  just  trying  his 
wings,  and  to  this  he  ascribed  his  travail  witli  his 
sermons.  But  we  suspect  that  the  emphatic  N.  B.  of 
a  former  page  had  kindled  another  flame,  quite  or 
more  diverting. 

The  scene  now  changes,  and  the  fascinations  of 
Fredericksbni'g  gave  way  for  a  time  to  the  attractions 
and  benefits  of  a  foreign  tour.  The  design  of  the 
trip  was  the  hope  of  recuperating  his  delicate  health 
for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  The  records  of  it  are 
few,  fragmentary,  and  with  long  intervals  between 
them.  The  diary  was  avowedly  and  evidently  writ- 
ten for  his  own  eye  only,  and  as  a  spiritual  exercise. 
It,  therefore,  consists  chiefly  of  self-examination,, 
prayers  and  praises,  with  but  few  incidents  of  travel. 
Of  the  voyage  tliere  is  but  one  item,  and  that  was 
when  they  were  in  danger,  on  April  23,  of  shipwreck 
on  the  Tuscar  rock.  He  describes  himself  as  sitting 
in  the  stern,  and,  every  minute  expecting  the  wreck, 


24 

prayed  He  would  give  the  grace  of  submission  to . 

"  I  find  my  thoughts  at  this  crisis  too  much  directed 
to  her.  I  then  prayed  for  myself."  Thus  these 
gleams  out  of  the  darkness  reveal  the  unselfishness 
which  always  characterized  him.  When  the  danger 
was  over,  the  captain  said :  "  If  we  had  not  been  the 
moskt  favored  people  that  were  ever  board  ship,  we 
would  now  all  be  in  the  other  world." 

They  reached  Liverpool  on  April  24,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  London.  On  Sunday  he  heard  Dr.  Short, 
the  historian,  on  Romans  vii.  14,  and  hoped  it  would 
bring  to  mind  a  sermon  of  Dr.  Alexander,  of  Prince- 
ton, on  the  same  text ;  but  he  was  struck  by  the  con- 
trast, etc.  The  awful  grandeur  of  the  building  in- 
spired him  with  a  feeling  of  solemnity,  notwithstand- 
ing the  careless  conduct  of  many  who  only  came  to 
see  the  Abbey,  and  the  unsatisfying  discourse.  He 
could  realize  that  God  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made 
with  hands,  but  in  humljle  and  contrite  hearts. 

On  May  25  he  reached  Cambridge,  and,  like 
every  cultured  man,  had  his  spirit  stirred  within  him 
in  traversing  the  streets  and  colleges,  so  redolent  of 
Bacon  and  Newton  and  many  another  giant  of  "  mighty 
bone  and  bold  emprise."  No  one  who  has  seen  the 
chapel  of  King's  College  will  ever  forget  "  that  glorious 
work  of  fine  intelligence,"  as  Wordsworth  calls  it,  its 
windows  and  its  roof  without  a  pillow,  its  walls 
covered  with  intricate  carvings,  and  the  many-colored 
lights  playing  with  the  sculpture.     "  In  tlie  solemn 


25 

silence  of  the  scene,  which  I  will  remember  through 
eternity,"  he  says,  "  I  fix  my  thoughts  upon  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  present  my  body  and  soul  a  loving  sacrifice 
to  His  service,"  etc.  Here  he  heard  Simeon,  sat  in  his 
study  and  talked  with  him  of  Henry  Marty n,  whose 
picture  hung  over  Simeon. 

On  June  2  he  was  in  Oxford,  where  he  met  with 
two  friends  whose  society  made  home  life  for  him  in 
a  strange  land,  and  with  whom  he  took  sweet  counsel 
and  went  to  the  house  of  God,  and  traversed  the 
walks  of  Christ  Church  meadows,  shaded  with  limes 
and  elms  and  horse-chestnuts,  on  the  Isis,  picturesque 
with  the  variegated  costumes  of  students  in  their 
boats.  One  of  tliese  was  Rev.  William  Stone,  after- 
wards Canon  of  Canterbury  Cathedral.  Sunday  night, 
12:15,  he  records  in  his  diary  devout  thanks  to  God  for 
the  privileges  of  the  day,  including  the  Holy  Com- 
munion and  a  profitable  conversation  with  his  dear 
Stone.  Another  friend  made  at  Oxford  was  the  son 
of  the  Bishop  of  Bangor,  from  whose  residence  he 
afterwards  visited  all  points  of  beauty  and  interest  in 
Wales. 

He  reached  Glasgow  from  Lanarck  July  3,  and 
heard  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  morning  from  Romans  viii. 
31,  and  in  the  evening  on  Psalm  xix.  He  records  a 
synopsis  of  these  sermons,  to  "  recall  to  his  own  mind 
the  good  advice  given  him  to-day,  so  suited  to  his 
state  of  mind,"  and  prays  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
enable  him  rightly  to  apply  it.     In  July  he  was  in 


26 

Ireland,  Wales  and  England ;  in  September  on  the 
Continent,  visited  Paris,  and  on  October  1  at  Havre, 
waiting  for  winds  and  tide  to  Ijear  liim  home,  which, 
after  a  stormy  voyage  in  the  Bayard,  he  reached  in 
November.  At  sea  he  had  many  discussions  with 
Romanists,  Unitarians,  and  persons  with  no  creed, 
which  suggested  the  reflections  "  that  the  influence  of 
the  Church  of  England  causes  more  orthodoxy  in 
opinion  and  reverence  for  sacred  things  than  exists  in 
Amei'ica,  where  the  greater  number  have  no  religious 
training.  When  the  latter  make  a  profession  of  re- 
ligion, it  is  more  apt  to  be  the  result  of  conviction, 
so  that  in  England  we  may  look  for  more  professors 
of  religion,  but  not  so  many  conscious  of  personal 
experience." 

On  January  25,  1825,  he  received,  through  Gen. 
Robert  Taylor,  a  call  to  take  charge  of  Christ  Church, 
Norfolk.  This  weighty  charge  (at  that  time  the 
largest  in  the  diocese)  might  well  make  a  young  man 
in  his  twenty- third  year,  a  novice  in  the  ministry, 
pause.  Accordingly,  the  subject  was  seriously  and 
carefully  debated  in  his  own  mind.  After  visiting 
the  congregation  and  preaching,  he  accepted  the  in- 
vitation to  begin  service  March  1.  In  the  meantime, 
on  February  14,  he  was  married  to  Ophelia,  daughter 
of  Isaac  Hite  Williams,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Fred- 
ericksburg, and  his  wife,  Lucy  Coleman,  daughter  of 
Capt.  Philip  Slaughter,  a  Revolutionary  officer,  and 
his  wife,  Margaret  French  Strother,  daughter  of  Col. 
French  Strother. 


27 

At  the  ensuing  Convention,  in  May,  he  reported  for 
the  three  months,  eleven  baptisms,  eight  funerals,  four 
marriages,  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  communi- 
cants ;  the  revival  of  the  Education  Society,  and  of  a 
deej)  interest  in  the  Seminary.  His  labors  and  faith- 
ful ministry  here  was  brief,  and  terminated  in  No- 
vember, "  The  w^eakness  of  my  body  generally,  and  of 
my  chest  in  particular,  made  it  necessary  to  leave  the 
place.  I  have  always  had  my  fears,  but  the  Lord  in 
mercy  made  it  plain."  In  the  hearts  of  those  surviv- 
ing there  are  grateful  memories  of  the  high  apprecia- 
tion of  his  character  and  of  his  sweet  sympathy  with 
the  suffering. 

After  visiting,  chiefly  in  Fredericksburg,  until 
December,  1826,  he  took  charge  of  St.  Stephen's 
Church,  Culpepper,  residing  first  at  Springfarm,  and 
then  moving  to  the  village.  Here  and  at  Orange 
Court  House,  where  there  was  no  church  edifice,  he 
preached  the  Gospel  with  force  and  godly  sincerity, 
and  chiefly  at  his  own  expense,  adding  to  the  Church 
by  baptisms,  confirmations  and  communions,  and 
organizing  education  and  missionary  societies  until 
voice  and  health  failed.  In  18^1  Dr.  Winston,  lay 
delegate,  reported  to  the  Convention  the  resignation 
and  removal  of  Mr.  Smith  as  an  event  "greatly  to  be 
deplored." 

The  present  writer  has  a  few  pages  of  a  journal 
in  which  is  recorded  the  names  of  some  persons  who 
were  the  fruit  of  Mr.  Smith's  ministry   here,  he  him- 


28 

self  having  been  presented  to  the  Bishop  for  Con- 
firmation by  him,  I  also  remember  that  when  I  made 
my  maiden  speech,  on  a  Fourth  of  July,  at  Washing- 
tun's  Hotel  at  Stevensburg,  Mr.  Smith  furnished  me 
with  books  of  reference,  enabling  me  to  give  it  a 
religious  cast ;  and  it  is  curious  that  when  I  made  my 
last  speech  in  Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  at  the  Cen- 
tennial of  Washington's  Inauguration,  April  30,  1889, 
Mr.  Smith,  at  whose  house  I  was  sojourning,  insisted 
upon  reading  the  proofs,  supervising  its  passage 
through  the  press  only  a  few  weeks  before  his  death. 
It  was  in  St.  Stephen's  Church,  too,  that,  in  1827,  Mr. 
Smith  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  by  Bishop 
Moore,  after  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jackson,  of 
Winchester,  the  grandfather  of  Dr.  H.  Melville 
Jackson,  of  Grace  Church,  Richmond. 

His  diary  during  his  ministiy  at  Culpepper  is 
almost  wholly  devoted  to  supplications  and  inter- 
cessions for  his  people  and  all  men,  and  thanksgivings 
for  the  riches  of  God's  goodness  and  long-suffering, 
etc.  "  Oh,  Temporis  parsimonian  qucmi  ignota  es  et 
rara,  omnmm  reram  reparabilis  jactura  proeterquam 
terrvporis^''  he  writes.  "  If  such  was  the  reflection  of  a 
heathen,  Pliny,  what  must  the  Christian  say  ?  How 
melancholy  is  it  for  me  to  look  back  upon  twenty-five 
years  and  two  months,  cii jus  jactura  irreparahilis  esty 

Among  the  few  incidents  recorded  in  his  diaiy 
while  in  Culpepper  are  the  following,  viz. :  "  March  9, 
1827. — I  have    been  trying  to  think  of  the  solemn 


29 

vows  required   by  those  who  present  themselves  for 
Priest's  Orders.     It  is  the  most  important  engagement 
which  I  anticipate  to  the  day  of  my  death.     Oh,  how 
short  of  the  reality  are  my  views  of  the  responsibilities 
of  the  office  !     Oh,   Lord,  bear  me  up  by  Thy  Holy 
Spirit,  under  their  weight."     "  May   25.— On   23d  I 
received,  by  the  laying  on  of  Bishop  Moore's  hands, 
the  office  and  authority  of  a  priest.     I  was  culpably 
deficient  on  the  morning  of  that  day,  in  prayer  and 
self-examination,  by  the  questions  in  the  Ordinal.     I 
could  only  say,  after  it  was  over, '  The  Lord  is  good  and 
gracious.'   Mrs.  Strother  and  her  daughter,  and  Eleanor 
Thornton  partook  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and,  I  trust, 
witnessed  a  good  profession.     Lord,  give  them  grace 
to  walk   worthy  of  tlieir  high  calling,  and  save  them 
through    Christ    forever.       As  for  myself,  I   feel   an 
emptiness  of  soul  which  I  desire  may  be  filled  with  the 
love  of  God,"  etc. 

In  December  he  records  receiving  and  declining, 
after  mature  deliberation,  an  invitation  to  become 
assistant  to  Dr.  Keith,  in  Christ  Church,  Alexandria, 
which  decision  he  trusts  is  in  accord  with  the  will  of 
Grod,  and  that  he  was  entirely  influenced  by  this  belief. 
Once  more  his  feeble  health  made  it  necessary  to  rest 
from  his  labors,  and  Divine  Providence  opened  the  way 
to  another  trip  to  Europe.  Rev.  Dr.  Milnor,  of  New 
York,  having  been  deputed  by  the  American  Bible 
Society  and  other  associations  to  represent  them  at 
the  May  anniversaries  in  London,  invited  Mr.  Smith 


30 

to  accompany  them  on  April  16.  This  he  could  not 
make  his  arrangements  to  do,  but  followed  on  the 
20th,  and  joined  them  in  England,  in  time  to  enjoy 
much  social  pleasure  and  hear  many  eminent  clergy- 
men, as  Rowland  Hill  and  Simeon,  and  Chalmers; 
visiting  Robert  Hall,  the  great  Baptist  preacher  who 
so  much  admired  the  Prayer  Book,  and  like  Spurgeon 
was  an  Open  Communionist ;  visiting  and  having 
pleasing  converse  with  Hannah  More,  dining  with 
Zachary  Macaulay,  editor  of  The  Christian  Observer 
and  father  of  the  historian,  where  he  sat  by  Fanny, 
Lady  Trevillian,  and  talked  of  "  Tom."  Thus,  he 
enjoyed  exceptional  advantages  in  travelling  with  one 
who  in  his  official  capacity  was  honored  by  men  high 
in  rank  and  in  the  walks  of  literature  and  religion. 

In  Dr.  Milnor's  journal,  edited  by  Dr.  Stone,  is 
recorded  much  of  their  mutual  experience  as  travel- 
ling companions  on  the  Continent,  where  Mr.  Smith's 
knowledge  of  French  enabled  him  to  act  as  inter- 
preter. They  spent  several  weeks  in  Paris,  where 
there  is  so  much  to  amuse  and  divert,  yet  their  feel- 
ings were  not  unlike  those  of  St.  Paul  at  Athens, 
when  lie  saw  the  city  given  to  idolatry  of  false  doc- 
trine, and  hearing  and  telling  some  new  thing.*     The 

*  Those  were  stirring  times  in  France,  being  the  eve  of  the  historic 
three  days  of  July,  18B0,  and  the  convulsion  which  hurled  Charles  X.  from 
his  throne,  and  "  placed  upon  the  brow  of  Louis  of  Orleans  the  crown,  not 
of  France,  but  of  the  French."  Previously,  on  his  first  visit  to  Paris 
(1824),  he  was  amused  at  being  taken,  because  of  his  black  clothes  and 
white  cravat,  for  one  of  the  attendants  in  livery  of  some  grandee,  and  was 
permitted  to  pass  into  the  Cathedral,  where  Louis  XVIII.  was  laid  out  in 
state,  and  soon  after  he  saw  Charles  X.  ride  into  Paris  as  the  new  king. 


31 

special  design  of  Dr.  Milnor  in  visiting  Paris  was  to 
procure  a  teacher  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum. 

With  Drs.  Milnor  and  Mcllvaine  Mr.  Smith 
passed  through  Brighton  and  Portsmouth  to  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  where  Dr.  Milnor  had  a  special  commission 
from  the  American  Tract  Society  to  verify  the  narra- 
tives by  Hugh  Richmond  in  "  The  Dairyman's 
Daughter,"  "  The  Young  Cottager  "  and  "  The  African 
Servant,"  that  society  having  resolved  to  print  no  nar- 
rative which  was  not  substantially  true.  The  result  of 
their  observations  was  that  the  pictures  of  scenery 
were  true,  not  only  in  their  general  outline,  but  in  their 
minute  details.  The  present  writer,  who  made  a  like 
examination,  tracts  in  hand,  can  corroborate  the  state- 
ment. Those  editors  who  have  expurgated  these 
physical  features,  supposing  them  to  be  fancy  sketches, 
have  done  injustice  to  the  author,  and  despoiled  the 
narratives  of  their  native  beauty.  It  would  be  a 
supererogation  to  rehearse  the  exquisite  oft-told  tale  of 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  hallowed  by  the  genius  of  Leigh 
Richmond  and  transfigured  by  tourists  and  artists. 

Much  of  Dr.  Milnor's  narrative  expresses  Mr. 
Smith's  experience,  only  lacking  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  the  latter  was  wont  to  talk  of  these  liigh  days 
of  his  life.  These  memories  were  a  perennial  fountain 
of  health  and  joy,  from  which  he  drew  refreshment  in 
many  a  weary  hour  of  after  life. 

Returning  to  Virginia  in  November,  renewed  in 
health  and  spirits,  but  unequal  for  continuous  preach- 


32 

ing,  and  longing  to  do  good  in  tlie  line  of  his  profession, 
he  saw  no  f ulcram  upon  which  to  work  the  levers  that 
were  left  him.  But  as  in  former  like  necessities,  so 
now,  a  unanimous  call  comes  from  the  managers  of  the 
Philadelphia  Recorder  to  become  its  editor.  This,  of 
course,  raised  a  case  of  conscience,  which  was  debated 
in  his  diary,  with  prayers  like  the  cries  of  "  a  little 
child"  (which  he  spiritually  was)  in  "the  night  for 
light.  The  conclusion  was  that,  notwithstanding  his 
distrust  of  his  ability  for  so  responsible  a  trust,  yet  as 
it  was  the  only  door  open  to  him,  it  seemed  to  be  a 
call  from  the  Master,  whose  aid  would  supply  hie 
deficiencies — it  was  his  duty  to  heed  it. 

The  preaching  of  the  Gospel  with  the  living  voice 
to  the  listening  numbers,  when  that  voice  is  the  echo 
of  thoughts  and  emotions  which  are  beating  at  one's 
heart  and  leaping  to  one's  lips  for  utterance,  is  a  mighty 
power  for  convincing  the  judgment,  awakening  the 
conscience,  moving  the  hearts  and  moulding  the  man- 
ners of  men.  But  when  from  want  of  voice,  one  is 
obliged  to  come  down  from  the  pulpit,  it  is  a  great 
privilege  to  sit  in  the  editor's  chair.  He  at  once  be- 
comes "  Sir  Oracle,"  and  his  pen,  if  it  be  guided  by  a 
vigorous  and  well-furnished  brain,  may  exert  an  in- 
fluence wider  than  the  priestess  of  Apollo  dispensing 
oracles  from  the  tripod  of  Delphi.  They  who  thus 
catch  the  public  attention  and  keep  it  by  iteration  and 
and  reiteration,  from  week  to  week,  always  having 
the  last  word,  should   become   the  masters  of  public 


33 

opinion.     This  compensation  for  exile  from  the  pulpit 
Mr.  Smith  enjoyed  while  conducting  the  Philadelphia 
Recorder  for  eight   years,  in  Philadelphia,   and   the 
Southern  Churchman  for  as  many  more,  in  Alexandria. 
When  the  Kev.  B.  B.  Smith,  afterwards  Presiding 
Bishop,  retired  from  the  Recorder,  its  managers,  after 
looking  with  prayerful   anxiety  for  a  fit  person  to 
supply  his  place,   unanimously  chose,  November   9, 
1830,  Rev.  Gr.  A.  Smith  as  one  having  the  entire  con- 
fidence of  his  brethren,  and  well  qualified  to  maintain 
the   character   and   promote   the   circulation    of    the 
Recorder.     On  June  15,  1831,  Mr.  Smith  himself  said  : 
"  The  new  editor  begins  with  the  present  number  with 
a  deep  impression  of  the  responsibilities  of  the  ofiice. 
While   earnestly  asking   aid   from  his   brethren,   he 
desires  not  to  shrink  from  the  duties  which  devolve 
upon  himself.     Disqualified  at  present,  by  bodily  in- 
firmity, for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  he  is  grateful  for 
the  prospect  of  usefulness  which  a  gracious  Providence 
has  opened  to  him,  and  desires  to  improve  them  to  the 
utmost.     In  the  progress  of  our  labors  we  wish  to  set 
forth  as  much  as  lieth  in  us,  quietness  and  love  among 
all  Christian  people.     We  have  no  love  for    contro- 
versy, and    hope  to  avoid   it,  unless   conscientiously 
driven  to  it  by  the  cause  of  truth,"  etc.     This  was  the 
keynote  to  his  editorial  career. 

Although  we  have  followed  him  through  the 
columns  of  these  journals,  and  noted  his  clippings  and 
his  comments,  we  cannot  photograph  them  here.     We 


34 

can  only  touch  tlie  salient  topics  of  the  times.  Eminent 
among  these  was  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith,  around  which  controversy  has  so  often  raged, 
not  without  loss  of  that  charity  which  is  the  end  of 
the  commandment.  Upon  this  doctrine  the  Refor- 
mation turned  and  was  won,  but  in  the  progress  of 
Church  history  it  has  often  suffered  eclipse  by  the  in- 
terposition of  clouds  of  one  sort  and  another  between 
the  Church  and  the  Sun.  Sometimes  it  was  run  into 
the  ground  by  Antinomianism,  and  then  again  it  was 
overlaid  by  dead  works,  or  obscured  by  metaphysical 
subtleties.  Upon  this  subject  Mr.  Smith's  trumpet 
gave  no  uncertain  sound,  defending  it  with  clearness, 
firmness  and  force  from  the  evangelical  standpoint,  as 
held  by  Bishops  Moore,  Meade  and  Mcllvaine,  and  by 
Drs.  Bedell,  William  Wilmer,  Milnor,  Tyng,  Clarke, 
Sparrow,  May,  Suddards,  and  other  leaders  of  the 
times  who  rallied  around  the  Recorder.  But  he  was 
ever  careful  to  maintain  good  works  as  the  test  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  faith  which  justifies,  as  trees  are 
known  by  their  fruits. 

As  to  his  views  of  Church  polity,  his  polar  star 
among  uninspired  men  was  the  judicious  Hooker, 
whom  he  believed  to  be  the  soundest  and  ablest  ex- 
positor of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  of  the  Articles 
and  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church.  He  was  a  loyal  son 
of  his  Mother  Church,  approving  with  all  his  mind 
her  distinctive  polity  and  principles,  and  loving  with 
all  his  heart  her  heavenly  ways.    And  yet  he  never  in- 


35 

dulged  in  denunciations  of  those  who  differed  from  him, 
and  never  wished  to  build  a  wall  of  partition  so  high 
that  he  could  not  give  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to, 
and  greet  with  words  of  kindness  and  cheer,  all  those 
on  the  other  side  who  loved  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity. 
This  was  the  plane  upon  which  all  questions  of  polity 
and  doctrine  were  debated,  including  those  arising  out 
of  the  Oxford  Tracts  and  the  Evangelical  Knowledge 
Society,  which  was  instituted  the  very  year  (1847)  in 
which  Mr.  Smith  took  charge  of  the  Southern  Churcli- 
man.  He,  with  Bishops  White,  Moore,  Meade  and 
others,  was  a  strenuous  champion  of  the  Bible  So- 
ciety as  a  rallying  point  for  all  Christians,  and  afford- 
ing a  basis  wide  enough  for  every  shade  of  opinion. 

Upon  the  questions  which  arose  as  to  the  relative 
claims  of  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missions,  he  took  in 
advance  the  ground  upon  which  the  Church  now 
stands, — that  the  field  is  the  world  and  that  every 
Christian  heart  is  a  centre  whose  circumference  is 
the  utmost  limit  of  the  inhabited  globe.  The  cause 
of  temperance,  of  schools,  and  colleges,  and  seminaries, 
and  all  those  wheels  in  the  mechanism  of  Christian 
civilization  which  are  bearing  the  earth  along  from 
torpid  winter  to  awakening  spring,  received  an  accele- 
rating impulse  from  his  columns.  But  overtopping 
them  in  his  love  and  zeal  was  the  Episcopal  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  of  Virginia,  whose  course  he  watched 
with  intense  interest,  never  losing  an  opportunity  of 
putting  in  a  good  word  for  it  and   its  tributary,  the 


36 

Education  Society,  whicli  was  the  reservoir  into  which 
was  poured  the  little  rills  from  the  parishes  which 
kept  it  alive  and  fruitful. 

As  a  seal  of  approbation  of  his  editorial  work, 
a  sort  of  diploma,  a  large  Bible  was  given  him,  on 
which  was  printed  in  gold  letters  :  "  Presented  to 
Rev.  George  A.  Smith  from  S.  H.  Tyng,  James  May 
and  William  Suddards,  January  1st,  1838,  as  a  token 
of  confidence  and  Christian  regard,  on  the  occasion  of 
his  retiring  from  the  editorship  of  the  Episcopal 
Recorder^  In  his  own  diary  is  recorded  his  thanks 
to  God  for  success  in  doubling  the  subscription  list, 
etc.,  so  much  beyond  his  hopes. 

The  pilgrim,  laden  with  physical  infirmity,  once 
more  takes  up  his  staff  and  returns  to  Alexandria, 
hoping  to  renew  his  strength  by  contact  with  mother 
Earth,  as  Bishop  Meade  was  wont  to  do  at  Mountain 
View.  But  he  could  not  rest  long  idle,  that  spectre 
seemed  ever  to  be  haunting  his  leisure  hours.  He 
then  decided  to  establish  a  school  for  boys,  as  the  best 
method  for  doing  good  (the  thought  ever  uppermost 
in  him)  within  his  reach.  To  this  end  he  chose  a 
beautiful  suburb  of  the  Seminary,  overlooking  Alex- 
andria and  the  majestic  Potomac,  called  Clarens,  which 
now  became  the  "  birthplace  of  love "  in  a  higher 
sense  than  was  its  namesake,  so  transfigured  by  the 
genius  of  Rousseau  and  Byron.  In  this  nursery,  for 
eleven  years,  Mr.  Smith  sowed  seed  and  trained  plants 
which  brought  forth  good  fruit  in  many  a  home  and 


37 

in  the  Church,  as  we  shall  presently  see.  Among 
Mr.  Smith's  assistants  in  the  school  were  many  who 
passed  through  it  into  the  ministry,  as  Leavell,  Davis, 
of  New  York ;  Fielding,  the  disciplinarian  par  emi- 
nence ;  Dalrymple,  Bishop  Whittle,  the  cultured 
Wiley,  who  came  a  sceptic  and  went  away  a  Christian, 
having  slept  in  the  library  among  the  remains  of 
defunct  theologians,  with  whose  spirits  he  held 
nightly  converse ;  Tyng  and  Moore,  and  Collier  and 
Syle,  whose  letters  in  after  years  were  full  of  grateful 
memories. 

Rev.  Charles  West  Thomson   vented  his  enthu- 
siasm in  a  touching  poem  beginning : 

"  I  winna  forget  Clarens 
While  life  shall  remain." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the 
school,  I  may  say  that  there  are  letters  extant  from 
mothers,  asking  the  prayers  of  the  principal  whose 
influence  helped  to  form  the  character  of  their  boys ; 
from  a  wife  telling  of  the  death  of  her  husband,  to  one 
who  had  taught  him  in  his  boyhood,  and  who  was  the 
model  of  his  life ;  from  others,  telling  of  lives  won  for 
Christ  by  memories  of  his  life — "  Next  to  my  mother, 
you  have  led  me  to  Christ " ;  from  another,  saying,  "  I 
have  joined  the  Church,  and  I  owe  it  to  the  impres- 
sions made  by  you  "  A  gray-haired  man  said  lately, 
"  He  will  never  know  the  influence  he  has  exerted 
over  me  these  many  years.  When  almost  hating  man- 
kind, and  ready  for  deeds  of  violence,  the  thought  of 


38 

his  life  restrained  me."  There  are  also  testimonials  of 
gratitude  from  those  who  had  been  taught  without  re- 
numeration  and  at  reduced  prices.  But  time  and  space 
are  wanting  for  further  enumeration.  Two  of  these 
former  pupils  and  the  son  of  another  bore  him  to  the 
grave,  with  reverence  and  love. 

Among  Mr.  Smith's  pupils  at  Clarens  were  Gen. 
G.  W.  Custis  Lee,  now  President  of  Washington 
and  Lee  Univ^ersity;  Gen.  W.  H.  Fitzhugh  Lee,  both 
sons  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee ;  and  Gen.  Fitz  Lee,  the 
present  Governor  of  Virginia.  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee 
wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Smith,  acknowledging  the  obli- 
gations of  his  son  Custis  for  his  training  in  the  school, 
when  the  latter  was  examined  at  West  Point.  The 
Rev.  Dunbar  Brooke,  Col.  John  M.  Patton  and  Gen. 
Edwin  Slaughter  were  pupils  of  the  Fairfax  Institute. 
He  now  devoted  his  time  to  the  Soutliern  Churchman 
(whose  charge  he  had  assumed  in  1847),  in  connection 
with  a  school  for  girls.  He  continued  the  editorship 
of  the  Southern  Ghiirchinan  (which  we  have  antici- 
pated) until  1855.  Several  years  passed  in  seeking  a 
more  propitious  climate  for  an  invalid  daughter,  and 
in  teaching  a  school  for  boys  in  Alexandria. 

THE  CHURCH  UNDER  MARTIAL  LAW. 

And  now  the  war  cloud,  which  had  been  slow- 
ly gathering,  darkened  the  horizon,  and  Cicero's  say- 
ing,  Intel'  arma  silent  leges,  was   sadly  fulfilled  in 


39 

Alexandria,  and  his  other,  Maxim  arma  cedunt  togea, 
was  reversed,  as  we  shall  see. 

In  May,  1861,  the  Federal  army  occupied  Alex- 
andria. A  large  proportion  of  its  citizens  had  re- 
tired, the  young  men  rallying  to  the  call  of  their  na- 
tive State,  and  the  non-combatants,  unwilling  to  bear 
the  humiliations  which  they  apprehended,  and  which 
those  who  remained  suffered,  the  clergymen  followed 
their  scattered  flocks,  and  the  churches  were  closed.* 
Mr.  Smith  remained,  chiefly  to  be  in  communication 
with  an  invalid  daughter,  who  was  trying  the  climate 
of  Iowa.  He  kept  house,  attended  by  an  old  colored 
family  servant.  Aunt  Betty,  who  was  loyal  and  true,  as 
were  all  his  servants,  whom  he  freed;  but  some  of 
them  were  in  his  service  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He 
received  his  meals  from  a  married  daughter,  Mrs.  Corse, 
next  door. 

Having  sons  in  the  Southern  army,  he  was  an  ob- 
ject of  suspicion,  and  detectives  dogged  his  steps.  Be- 
ing a  Southern  man  in  every  fibre  of  his  soul  and  body, 
he  was  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of 
their  cause,  and  willing  if  need  be  to  seal  his  convic- 
tions with  his  blood.  And  yet  he  was  meek,  gentle, 
courteous,  and  inoifensive  as  a  lamb,  and  with  a  charity 
that  could  suffer  long  and  be  kind,  praying  for  his  ene- 


*  This  is  the  first  time  the  Church  in  Virginia  has  been  under  martial 
law  since  1612,  when  Sir  Thomas  Dale  brought  over  from  the  Low  Coun- 
tries the  bloody  code  entitled.  "  For  the  Colony  in  Virginia,  Laws,  Moral 
and  Martial."     These  were  so  cruel  that  they  were  seldom  if  ever  enforced. 


40 

mies  and  doing  good  to  those  that  despitef  ully  used 
and  persecuted  him.  For  such  a  man,  with  the  courage 
of  a  martyr  and  the  tenderness  of  a  woman,  who  would 
have  sooner  died  than  bend  the  hinges  of  the  knee 
where  thrift  might  follow  fawning,  to  be  exposed  to 
the  wanton  insults  of  rude  men  dressed  in  a  little  brief 
authority,  and  who  delighted  in  chafing  the  sensibili- 
ties of  those  subject  to  their  power,  the  situation' was 
the  severest  possible  test  of  the  faith  and  patience  of 
the  saints.  His  severe  passage  through  this  furnace  of 
fiery  trial  was  more  sublime  than  that  of  heroes  in  the 
intoxication  of  battle. 

I  have  no  desire  or  purpose  to  revive  the  fading 
memories,  or  to  rekindle  the  smouldering  embers  of  a 
time  of  war ;  but  the  truth  of  history  demands  that 
some  incidents  should  be  related.  Mr.  Smith  could 
not  live  without  trying  to  do  good  to  all  within  his 
reach.  Accordingly,  he  visited  the  sick,  baptized 
children,  administered  the  Holy  Communion,  and 
obeyed  the  command  "  not  to  forsake  the  assembling 
yourselves  together."  The  Federal  authorities  had 
taken  possession  of  Christ  Church,  and  instituted,  ac- 
cording to  martial  law  (shall  we  call  it  cannon  law?), 
one  of  their  ministers,  who  retained  possession  of  it 
during  the  war  of  arms  and  of  reconstruction.  Of 
course,  no  Southern  man  could  worship  there.  He 
had  been  asked  to  take  charge  of  Grace  Church,  Dr. 
Sprigg  having  removed  the  Southern  Oliurchinan  to 
Richmond.     But  it  was  thought  to  be  more  expedient 


41 

to  worship,  like  the  primitive  Christians  in  the  time  of 
persecution,  in  a  less  conspicuous  place,  and  as  there 
were  no  catacombs  accessible,  a  hall  was  opened  for 
Divine  service. 

When  the  Rev.  Dr.  K.  Johns  Stewart,  a  nephew 
of  Bishop  Johns,  and  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of 
Edmund  J.  Lee,  of  Alexandria,  proposed  to  Mr.  Smith 
to  join  him  in  opening  St.  Paul's  Church,  saying  that 
as  the  United  States  was  not  warring  against  the 
Church,  the  officers  could  not  take  exception  to  a  ser- 
vice which  omitted  all  political  matter,  Mr.  Smith  con- 
sented, and  on  February  2,  1862,  St.  Paul's  Church 
was  opened  for  Divine  service.  As  this  led  to  a  very 
dramatic  scene,  and  as  I  do  not  wish  to  misrepresent 
it  in  any  respect,  1  have  asked  Dr.  Stewart,  who  still 
survives,  to  narrate  the  facts  as  they  occurred  under 
his  own  eyes.     The  following  is  his  statement: 

"  I  notified  the  people  that  while  we  took  the 
liberty  of  omitting  a  political  prayei",  we  would  not, 
under  penalty  of  death,  permit  any  force  outside  the 
Church  to  compel  us  to  insert  any  other  petition ;  that 
we  were  law-abiding  citizens,  and  the  Church  only  had 
authority  in  this  matter.  A  detective  was  in  the  gal- 
lery, and  he  notified  Mr.  Stanton  that  Mr.  Smith  and  I 
had  a  congregation  of  F.  F.  V.s,  naming  some  of  them 
— Lees,  Daingerfields,  Smoots,  Smiths,  etc.  'Let  me 
break  the  spirit  of  that  congregation,  and  the  border 
clergy  will  be  quiet.'  The  detective  and  Capt.  Farnes- 
worth  were  in  one  of  the  first  pews.     Mr.  Smith  and  I 


42 

were  in  the  chancel.  I  was  reading  the  Litany.  Sud- 
denly the  detective's  voice  was  heard,  ordering  me  to 
pray  at  his  dictation.  As  I  paid  no  attention  to  the  or- 
dei',  he  or  Capt.  Farnesworth  offered  a  political  prayer. 
By  a  sign,  soldiers  with  loaded  revolvers  and  drawn 
sabres  surrounded  the  chancel.  Two  officers  entered, 
presented  their  revolvers  at  my  breast,  seized  the  book 
and  threw  it  at  Mr.  Smith's  feet.  I  went  on  from  mem- 
ory— 'From battle  and  murder,  and  from  sudden  death, 
Good  Lord,  deliver  us.'  Mr.  James  Green,  the  warden, 
seized  an  officer  who  laid  his  hand  on  my  shoulder 
while  I  was  still  kneeling,  and  threw  him  out  of  the 
chancel.  The  man  drew  a  revolver,  and  I  heard  the 
voice  of  a  lieutenant,  the  only  self-possessed  man,  say- 
ing, '  Don't  fire ;  the  time  has  come  to  prevent  blood- 
shed.' There  was  a  confusion  which  no  words  can 
describe. 

"  In  the  midst  of  all  this,  Mr.  Smith  calmly 
laid  his  hand  upon  an  officer's  arm,  saying,  '  Please  re- 
member where  you  are ;  this  is  the  Lord's  day,  and  we 
are  His  ministers.'  Capt.  Farnesworth  then  said  to  me, 
'  I  arrest  you  by  authority  of  the  United  States.'  I  re- 
plied, '  And  I  summon  you  before  the  bar  of  the  King 
of  kings  for  interfering  with  His  ministers  while  pre- 
senting the  petitions  of  His  people  to  His  throne.' 
The  Colonel  and  T  stood  facing  each  other.  He  said, 
'  You  will  go  with  this  officer  to  prison.'  I  replied,  '  I 
will  go  under  protest  and  by  force,  but  as  you  arrest 
me  as  a  minister,  you  must  not  make  it  a  personal 


43 

matter ;  you  must  take  me  in  my  surplice.'  On  the 
street  I  found  Miss  A.  surrounded  by  armed  soldiers, 
and,  with  her  Prayer  Book  in  hand,  was  giving  them 
her  opinion.  Mr.  AVells,  a  lawyer,  had  taken  Mrs- 
Stewart  out,  but  my  daughter  insisted  on  going 
through  the  surging  crowd  of  negroes,  and  to  the 
guard-house  of  the  8th  Illinois  Cavalry.  Mr.  Wells 
had  gone  to  Christ  Church,  where  Dr.  McMurdy  was 
installed  by  military  authority,  and  told  Gen.  Mont- 
gomery that  there  was  mischief  afloat,  and  the  good 
General  hastened  to  my  relief.  The  streets  were 
crowded  with  sympathizing  people,  and  in  the  midst 
of  an  argument  between  the  Provost  Marshal  and  my- 
self. Gen.  Montgomery  came  to  my  prison,  and  asked 
me  to  give  my  parole.  When  I  declined,  he  said  he 
would  be  forced  to  send  me  to  the  slave-pen.  I  told 
him  to  do  his  duty  and  I  would  do  mine.  As  I  passed 
along  the  street,  people  crowded  to  shake  my  hand, 
and  I  begged  them  not  to  do  it,  as  it  annoyed  the 
General,  who  seemed  to  be  acting  as  a  gentleman ; 
only  Mrs.  Daingerfield  put  a  roll  of  bank  notes  in  my 
hand,  saying  it  had  been  hastily  collected  and  I  would 
need  it.  While  I  was  a  prisoner  in  the  General's 
office,  Mr.  Smith  came  and  openly  expressed  his  con- 
currence with  me,  and  reasoned  and  remonstrated,  as 
did  many  other  citizens.  Gen.  Montgomery  tele- 
graphed the  situation  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  instructed 
Mr.  Stanton  to  reply  that  the  General  had  authority 


44 

to    do    as    he   pleased    iu   the   premises,   and    I    was 
released." 

This  is  all  that  concerns  Mr.  Smith.    Dr.  Stewart 
adds  as  to  himself: 

"  A  mob  surrounded  my  house  and  ordered  me  to 
display  the  United  States  flag  at  the  upper  window, 
and  when  I  refused,  an  officer  raised  the  flag  on  the  top 
of  the  house.  I  wish  I  had  that  flag  as  a  memorial. 
I  was  warned  not  to  leave  my  house,  but  being  sent 
for  to  baptize  a  child,  in  a  lonely  street,  my  friends, 
including  Mr.  Smith,  begged  me  not  to  take  the  risk. 
It  was  a  trap,  but  I  went;  and  I  own  that  I  had  many 
misgivings.  And  when  several  stout  women  led  me 
up  a  dark  stairway,  into  a  secluded  room,  I  was  rather 
ill  at  ease ;  but  when  I  said,  'Name  this  child,'  and  the 
response  was  '  Lee  Beauregard,'  all  my  apprehensions' 
were  gone.  But  I  had  my  revenge  when  Gen.  Grant 
thanked  me  in  the  White  House  for  services  done 
prisoners  of  war  in  the  Libby,  and  when  ex-Sec- 
retary of  State  Fish  sent  me  a  sum  of  money  in 
acknowledgment  of  this  service.  Again,  when  the 
Confederate  army  occupied  Hagerstown,  the  colonel 
commanding  said  to  me,  '  As  Dr.  McMurdy  has  been 
installed  by  force  in  Christ  Church,  and  you  have  been 
dragged  from  the  altar  of  St.  Paul's,  you  are  requested 
to  preach  in  the  Episcopal  church  here  to-day.'  As 
this  would  have  been  a  forcible  entry,  and  would  have 
led  to  the'  arrest  of  a  worthy  minister,  I  declined,  and 
begged  that  a  guard  might  be  placed  at  the  church, 


45 

and  tliat  the  minister  might  be  assured  of  not  being 
interfered  with  when  he  prayed  for  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  a  sweet  revenge  to  be  able 
to  do  good  to  one's  enemies.  Pardon  me,  my  dear 
brother.  This  statement  may  seem  to  savor  of  self, 
whereas,  I  assure  you,  that  but  for  Mr.  Smith  there 
might  have  been  no  history  of  it. 

"Truly  yours, 

"Kensey  Johns  Stewart.* 
"  Washington,  Oct.  5,  1889." 

When  one  of  Mr.  Smith's  sons  procured  a  pass  to 
leave  the  city,  Mr.  Smith,  finding  that  it  required  an 
oath,  promptly  returned  it  to  the  officer.  After  a 
threat  to  burn  his  house,  he  sent  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter away,  but  could  not  get  a  pass  for  himself  without 
conditions  with  which  he  could  not  conscientiously 
comply.  But  the  wife  of  a  Baptist  minister  having 
procured  a  pass,  she  took  him  as  an  escort,  and  he, 
buying  a  horse,  drove  her  in  a  buggy ;  so  he  joined  his 
family  in  Amherst  County,  where  they  had  taken  ref- 
uge. Like  a  bird  loosed  from  the  cage,  he  rejoiced  in 
breathing  again  the  free  air,  in  contemplating  the  love 
of  God  in  the  mirror  of  the  mountains,  and  joining  in 


*  Since  the  foregoing  was  written,  I  have  received  a  printed  copy  of 
a  statement  of  this  affair,  signed  by  Eev.  G.  A.  Smith  and  many  citizens, 
which  is  in  substance  the  same  as  that  of  Dr.  Stewart.  The  arrest  was 
made  without  the  knowledge  of  Gen.  Montgomery,  who  strongly  condemned 
it.  The  only  offence  alleged  was  the  omission  of  the  prayer  for  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  the  offering  of  which  would  have  been  an  act  of 
hypocrisy  and  mockery. 


46 

the  canticle,  "  Oh,  all  ye  gi-eeii  things  of  earth,  bless  ye 
the  Lord ;  praise  Him,  and  magnify  Him  for  ever." 
But  natural  religion  did  not  satisfy  his  aspirations — 
he  longed  for  the  courts  of  the  Lord,  where  he  could 
see  the  King  in  His  beauty  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  this  privilege  was  not  denied  him,  for  here  he 
found  four  vacant  churches,  St.  Mark's,  St.  Luke's, 
Ascension  and  Elon,  with  a  people  scattered  and 
peeled,  hungering  for  the  bread  of  life.  He  took 
charge  of  these  churches  gladly.  Silver  and  gold,  the 
people  had  none,  but  such  as  they  had  they  gave  un- 
to him.  The  custom  of  free-will  offerings  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  primitive  Church  was  renewed,  and  the 
people  tithed  themselves  with  the  tenth  pig  and  lamb, 
and  the  fruits  of  the  earth  in  their  several  kinds. 
Luxuries  were  unknown,  except  what  Goldsmith  calls 
"  the  luxury  of  doing  good."  Tea  and  coifee  were  as 
scarce  as  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when,  according  to  Macaulay,  "  it  was  handed  round 
to  be  tasted  and  stared  at,  and  touched  with  the  lips." 
But  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  and  the  wits 
of  the  Confederates  were  taxed  to  find  substitutes  for 
them,  which  they  did  in  decoctions  of  toasted  corn  and 
rye  and  potatoes,  raspberry  and  divers  other  leaves 
and  herbs,  of  which  many  of  us  have  bitter  memories.* 


*  Botanists  hereafter  should  add  to  the  coffea  Arabica  the  coffea  and 
thea  Virginiaca.  See  Porcher's  "  Medical  Botany  of  the  Confederate 
States." 


47 

Never  was  one  better  fitted  than  Mr.  Smith  to  be 
the  pastor  of  a  shorn  flock,  feeding  in  scant  pastures. 
Spare  in  person,  and  seldom  if  ever  tasting  meat,  he 
was  as  content  with  toasted  bread  and  apple  butter 
as  was  John  the  Baj)tist  with  locusts  and  wild  honey, 
in  the  wilderness  of  Judea.  Faithfully  and  affection- 
ately he  tended  the  flock  in  the  mountain.  The 
author  of  this  memoir  visited  him  and  held  a  mission 
at  Amherst  Court  House,  and  can  bear  witness  to  the 
reverence  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  parishion- 
ers, and  to  the  edification  and  comfort  his  ministiy 
was  to  this  stricken  people.  At  the  end  of  the  war 
he  returned  from  his  exile  to  his  home  in  Alexandria, 
but  continued  his  ministry  to  them  until  they  secured 
another  pastor  in  the  person  of  Dr.  McBride,  and  then 
he  said,  pathetically,  "  The  words  of  David,  the  son  of 
Jesse,  are  ended." 

Mr.  Smith's  active  ministry  in  the  office  of  pastor, 
editor  and  teacher  now  ended.  But  his  passive  minis- 
try only  ended  with  his  life.  I  emphasize  the  word 
passive,  in  the  sense  of  suffering  from  increasing 
bodily  infirmities,  from  compassion  for  his  own  and 
other  flocks,  scattered  without  a  shepherd  to  care  for 
them ;  grief  for  homes  of  friends  and  countrymen  de- 
spoiled and  dilapidated,  churches  in  ruins,  and  his  na- 
tive land  desolated  by  the  tread  of  grand  armies,  and  a 
whole  people  stricken  with  poverty,  straitened  for 
food  and  clothing,  and  burdened  with  the  pains  and 
penalties  of  so-called   reconstruction ;  wives  widowed 


48 

and  weeping  for  husbands  and  sons  untimely  slain. 
All  these  sad  sights  and  sounds,  to  one  so  sensitive  to 
every  phase  and  tone  of  suffering,  was  a  great  strain 
upon  his  mind  and  body,  and  the  subject  of  his 
thoughts  by  day  and  his  dreams  by  night. 

His  correspondence  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon 
his  daily  life,  hidden  from  the  public  eye,  and  would 
make  an  interesting  volume  in  itself.  It  reveals  his 
sympathies  with  all  these  forms  of  suffering,  and  his 
untiring  efforts  to  bind  up  broken  hearts,  pour  the  oil 
of  joy  into  bruised  spirits,  and  give  the  garments  of 
praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness.  Letters  lie  before 
me,  written  to  support  the  weak,  comfort  the  feeble- 
minded, cheer  the  despondent,  raise  the  fallen,  with 
words  of  tender  sympathy,  of  wise  counsel  and  affec- 
tionate pointing  to  the  Man  of  sorrows,  who  endured 
the  Cross,  and  in  sweetest  tones  invites  the  weary  and 
heavy  laden  to  come  to  Him  and  find  rest  for  their 
souls. 

In  his  letters  to  absent  friends  and  relatives  he 
reports  incidents  in  the  workings  of  the  several 
churches  in  Alexandria,  and  this  reveals  the  lively  in- 
terest he  took  in  the  Bible-classes,  Sunday-schools, 
mothers'  meetings,  measures  for  visiting  the  sick,  feed- 
ing the  hungry,  clothing  the  naked,  and  all  the  other 
wheels  and  pulleys  and  levers  in  the  machinery  of  a 
modern  parish.  It  is  delightful  to  read  the  kindly 
way  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  pastors  of  the  several 
churches  in  Alexandria,  his  appreciation  of  their  ser- 


49 

mons  and  his  sympatliy  with  their  work.  Indeed,  his 
habit  seems  to  have  been  that  recommended  by  his 
old  friend,  George  Herbert : 

■'  In  time  of  service  shut  up  both  thine  eyes, 
And  send  them  to  thine  heart. 
He  that  gets  patience  and  the  blessing  which 
Preachers  conclude  with,  hath  not  lost  his  pains." 

When  these  pastors  went  away  for  recreation,  how 
glad  he  was  to  take  their  places  in  part,  how  thankful 
to  God  he  seemed  to  be  for  an  opportunity  of  minis- 
tering again  in  desk  and  pulpit,  and  even  of  making  a 
little  address  when  his  strength  was  not  equal  to  a  ser- 
mon, and  what  a  cordial  it  seemed  to  be  to  his  spirit 
when  they  happened  to  recognize,  by  a  word  of  thanks, 
his  humble  service !  The  childlike  artlessness  in 
which  he  speaks  at  other  times  of  the  privilege  of  as. 
sisting  in  the  administration  of  the  Holy  Communion 
is  very  touching  and  beautiful.  After  these  seasons 
of  refreshing,  he  has  said,  in  the  abandon  of  confi- 
dential converse,  that  he  had  been  enabled  to  overlook 
the  immediate  celebrant,  and  took  the  bread  and  wine, 
as  it  were,  from  the  Saviour's  own  hands.  When  he 
was  no  longer  able  to  officiate  in  any  way  in  public,  he 
rejoiced  in  being  permitted  to  offer  the  morning  sacri- 
fice of  prayer  and  praise  in  his  family ;  and  when  he 
was  disabled  for  that  office,  he  said,  with  a  pathos 
which  started  the  tears  in  our  eyes,  "  I  am  thankful 
for  the  privilege  of  asking  a  blessing  at  meals." 
Another  channel  for  the  outpouring  of  his  sympathies 


50 

was  the  Infirmary  founded  by  Julia,  daughter  of 
Bishop  Johns,  and  presided  over  by  Miss  Davison. 
This  was  a  godsend  to  our  friend,  who  acted  as 
Auditor-Treasurer  and  disburser  of  the  funds,  in 
which  and  in  visiting  its  inmates  he  took  great  de- 
light, receiving  from  the  managers  cordial  thanks. 

But  his  sym]3athies  could  not  be  pent  up  in 
Alexandria.  Independently  of  his  interests  in  Do- 
mestic and  Foreign  Missions,  of  which  I  have  already 
spoken,  a  special  object  of  his  love  and  service  was 
the  Jaffa  Mission.  He  was  attracted  to  it  by  his  re- 
lations, and  those  of  his  family,  to  Miss  Baldwin 
and  the  Misses  Davison,  who  were  intimately  connected 
with  it.  Mr.  Smith  and  his  daughter  contributed 
valuable  articles  to  Mrs.  Pitman's  "  Mission  Life  in 
Greece  and  Palestine,"  and  co-operated  in  many  other 
ways  in  this  good  work.  From  his  retirement  he 
watched  with  an  eagle  eye  the  proceedings  of  the 
Diocesan  Councils  and  General  Conventions,  and 
scanned  the  columns  of  our  Church  journals,  not  from 
mere  curiosity  or  a  spirit  of  controversy,  but  from  the 
loving  interest  with  which  one  follows  the  fortunes  of 
a  dear  friend  or  near  relative,  whose  weal  is  a  personal 
joy  and  whose  woes  we  feel  as  a  personal  wound. 

DEPAKTING  SPIKITS  AND  MINSTERING  ANGELS. 

I  have  called  our  friend's  latter  years  a  passive 
ministry.  Some  of  the  objects  of  his  compassion  have 
been  enumerated.     But  he  had  sorrows  in  the  inner 


51 

sanctuary  of  his  home  with  which  a  stranger  could 
not  intermeddle.  In  1866,  soon  after  the  downfall  of 
the  Confederacy,  the  aged  mother  of  his  wife,  who  had 
been  an  exile  from  Culpepper  during  the  war,  was 
borne  back  in  her  casket  and  buried  in  Alexandria. 
This  revered  mother  in  Israel,  a  woman  of  masculine 
intelligence  and  much  culture,  had  been  for  generations 
an  oracle  of  wise  counsel  to  her  children,  who  listened 
to  her  responses  with  reverence.  On  May  80,  1871, 
his  lovely,  loving  and  beloved  daughter,  Eleanor,  upon 
whose  damask  cheek  consumption,  like  a  worm  in  the 
bud,  had  been  preying  before  his  weeping  eyes,  was 
suddenly  cut  down  like  a  flower.  As  her  pastor  closed 
her  eyes  with  the  words,  "Asleep  in  Jesus,"  her 
father's  voice  responded  reverently  from  the  adjoining 
room,  "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

In  1879,  August  5,  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  with 
whom  he  had  lived  in  wedded  bliss  for  more  than 
half  a  century,  the  partner  of  his  joys  and  the  solace 
of  his  sorrows,  departed  this  life.  He  read  the  com- 
mendatory prayer  with  wailing  tones  as  her  spirit 
passed  away,  and  when  it  was  gone  he  mournfully 
said  to  his  assembled  children,  "  For  your  sakes  only, 
I  am  willing  to  live  on." 

Melville  has  beautifully  said,  "  The  harp  of  the 
human  spirit  never  makes  such  sweet  music  as  when 
its  framework  is  all  shattered  and  the  strings  are  all 
torn."      Although  our  friend's  frame  was  shattered 


'     50. 

and  the  strings  of  bis  heart  were  all  torn,  yet  they 
never  failed  to  respond  when  touched  by  the  hand  of 
the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  the  sick  and  the  poor, 
the  weary  and  the  heavy  laden  who  sought  rest  for 
their  feet  and  solace  for  their  sorrows.  The  many 
letters  which  lie  before  me,  sounding  every  note  of 
sorrow,  and  the  responses,  breathing  every  form  of 
comfort,  warrant  what  may  seem  exaggerations  to  the 
reader. 

These  vacant  rooms  in  his  home  and  these  empty 
niches  in  his  heart  must  needs  be  filled  with  other 
guests,  and  the  angels  came  in  bodily  form,  as  they 
did  to  the  old  patriarch.  And  as  he  had  been  mind- 
ful of  the  injunction,  "  Be  not  forgetful  to  entertain 
strangers,  for  thereby  some  have  entertained  angels 
unawares,"  they  too  came,  in  the  form  of  missionaries 
from  the  Old  World.  Among  them  Grarabed,  the 
Armenian,  and  Friedlander,  the  Jew.  The  latter  was 
a  man  of  rare  gifts  and  ripe  culture,  speaking  many 
languages,  a  veteran  missionary  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land for  twenty-three  years  to  the  Jews  in  Africa  and 
at  Jerusalem.  Coming  to  this  country  on  some  liter- 
ary errand,  his  heart  was  moved  by  the  fifty  thousand 
Jews  that  darkened  the  streets  and  lanes  of  New  York, 
and  he  resolved  to  become  a  voluntary  missionary  to 
them.  He  had  known  the  Misses  Davison  at  Jaffa,  and 
highly  appreciated  their  character  and  fitness  for  the 
work.  Hence  he  came  to  Alexandria,  and  by  special 
invitation  to  Mr.  Smith's  house,  and  told  the  story  of 


53 

Russian  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  and  of  their  dis- 
persion, and  of  his  own  labors  among  those  suffering 
ones  who  found  refuge  in  the  Holy  Land.  He  con- 
trasted vividly  the  ideal  pictures  of  Jerusalem  with 
the  degradation  he  had  seen,  and  spoke  with  enthusi- 
asm and  wonder  of  the  open  field  of  usefulness  in  New 
York,  and  of  the  harvest  which  might  be  reaped  from 
seed  sown  there,  and  scattered  thence  over  the  land. 
Mr.  Smith  greeted  him  as  a  ministering  spirit,  and 
gave  him  one  of  the  vacant  niches  in  his  heart.  I 
cannot  forbear  quoting  some  passages  from  a  letter, 
the  childlike  beauty  and  humility  of  which  drew  tears 
from  my  eyes: 

*' Though  [  cannot  say  with  Peter,  'You  know  that  it  is  an 
unlawful  thing  for  a  man  that  is  a  Jew  to  come  unto  one  of 
another  nation,'  I  have  a  right  to  say,  it  is  so  unusual  a  thing 
for  a  Jew  to  be  so  overwhelmed  with  undeserved  kindness,  that 
you  must  allow  me  to  write  to  you  a  few  words  of  acknowledg- 
ment. .  .  .  When  you  were  not  satisfied  with  all  the  pres- 
ent pleasure  I  experienced  in  Alexandria,  but  surprised  me  with 
the  oifer  of  a  friendly  reception  here  in  Philadelphia,  I  felt 
somewhat  like  David  when  on  one  occasion  he  exclaimed,  'And 
this  was  yet  a  small  thing  in  Thy  sight,  but  Thou  hast  spoken  of 
Thy  servant  for  a  good  while  to  come,'  or  some  such  words. 
But  in  one  thing  you  were  mistaken — your  calculation  as  to 
how  manifold  the  warmth  of  the  welcome  would  be.  It  was  far 
below  the  mark. 

"  And  strangely  enough,  a  little  conversation  I  had  in  the 
train  yesterday  with  a  Jew  from  Philadelphia  brought  out  the 
c  )rrect  sum.  Seeing  me  read  a  Hebrew  letter  I  had  received  in 
the  morning,  he  could  not  forbear  speaking  to  me.  I  found 
him  to  be  a  sceptic,  who  was  especially  set  against  the  possi- 
bility of  prophecies  being  true  predictions.  '  Why,'  I  said,  'if 
I  could  make  you  understand  what  I  have  experienced  in  the 


54 

last  few  days,  you  would  see  the  literal  fulfillment  of  an  old 
prophecy  :  "  Every  one  that  has  forsaken  brothers,  or  sisters, 
or  father  or  mother  for  My  sake  "  (I  had  to  leave  out,  as  not 
referring  to  me,  houses  and  lands,  and  wife  and  children,) 
^' shall  receive  an  hundredfold.'" 

''  When,  late  last  night,  I  came  to  Mr.  ff  ubbard's,  T  did  real- 
ize that  this  prophecy  has  been  literally  fulfilled  to  me.  Miss 
H.'s  kindness  in  sending  a  letter  ahead  of  me  wa?  in  keeping 
with  all  I  have  experienced  since  T  came  to  Baltimore,  and  if 
there  is  anything  to  regret,  it  is  this,  that  the  letter  of  commen- 
dation was,  no  doubt,  tinged  with  that  sensationalism  vhich 
Miss  Davison  unfortunately  introduced  into  her  account  of  me. 
"  My  conscience  is  not  at  all  at  ease  at  my  allowing  these 
so  flattering  assumptions  to  pass  unchallenged,  but  it  is  not 
easy  to  steer  clear  of  the  Scylla  of  self-depreciatioa,  which  is 
often  but  another  form  of  self-laudation,  and  the  Charybdis  of 
accepting  by  silence  undeserved  praise.  I  feel,  however,  bound 
to  make  one  statement,  which  will  keep  you  from  attributing 
an  undue  value  to  the  knowledge  of  many  languages,  supposing 
I  possessed  it  to  the  extent  attributed  to  me  by  Miss  Davison's 
indulgence,  which  I  do  not.  In  Turkey  the  knowledge  of  vari- 
ous languages  is  at  a  discount,  belonging  to  the  commonest 
acquisitions  of  the  people.  We  had  an  old  Jewish  man  servant 
who  fluently  conversed  in  twelve  languages,  several  of  which  he 
read  and  wrote  fairly  well,  yet  I  had  often  to  make  the  observa- 
tion that  he  did  not  seem  to  have  a  single  thought  'to  blow 
himself  with'  in  any  of  the  twelve  languages.  To  sum  up  all  I 
wished  to  say  to  you,  and  to  you  all,  I  feel  very  grateful  for  all 
you  have  done  for  me,  whatever  be  the  exaggerated  opinion  you 
may  have  of  my  merits.  I  feel  something  like  the  despair  of 
gratefulness,  not  being  able  to  do  more  than  to  express  my 
gratefulness.  But  stop,  I  can  do  one  thing  that  David  did 
when  he  was  in  like  despair.  '  What  shall  I  render  for  all 
God's  benefits  ? '  he  asked,  and  he  answered,  '  I  will  take 
.  .  .'  Gratefully  to  take  what  is  kindly  given  is  what  we  all 
can  do,  and  if  such  accepting  could  ever  appear  to  me  like 
encroaching  upon  friends,  I  will  remember  the  very  last  words 
of  the  Bible  I  read  at  your  house,  '  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive,'  which  settles  the  account  in  the  most  equitable 


55 

manner.  I  do  cot  know  yet  whether  I  can  finish  my  business 
here  to-day  and  proceed  to  New  York.  But  if  I  do  stay  on,  I 
am  to  remove  to  Mr.  Hubbard's  and  preach  in  his  church  next 
Sunday. 

"Yours  gratefully, 

"H.  Feibdlander." 

Friedlander  began  his  missiou  in  Norfolk  Street, 
New  York,  which,  he  describes  as  black  with  people 
lounging  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays.  Among  these  he 
found  many  of  his  former  pupils  in  London  and  Jeru- 
salem. He  could  only  get  a  tenement  house,  where 
he  had  a  reading-room  to  which  Jews  resorted  in  the 
evening.  There  was  a  "  shut-up  church  "  at  which  he 
looked  with  longing  eyes,  but  he  found  that,  like 
other  houses,  it  could  not  be  had  without  rent  and 
"  silver  and  gold  had  he  none."  He  communicated 
every  ray  of  light  to  Mr.  Smith,  and  called  it  "  a 
glorious  prospect."  He  protested  against  the  habit  of 
making  the  work  of  God  "  shine  in  brighter  colors 
than  the  truth  warrants."  Good  people  ought  to 
know  better  than  to  pander  to  the  craving  for  hope- 
ful reports.  "I  strive  to  keep  myself  from  everything 
but  interest  in  the  victory  of  truth."  His  experience 
tauo:ht  him  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  make  Jewish 
Christians  missionaries  to  Jews,  if  the  office  improved 
their  condition  financially  and  socially.  The  Jews  are 
keen  to  note  the  fact,  and  sure  to  suspect  such.  They 
must  be  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ,  and  not  the 
love  of  money  and  position.  His  idea  was  to  pay  ex- 
penses by  doing  extra  work.     This,  by  the  way,  is  a 


56 

thought  worth  consideration  by  those  who  would 
offer  premiums  for  the  increase  of  the  ministry,  and  is 
specially  applicable  to  a  certain  class  of  our  popu- 
lation. Alas  !  after  six  months'  work  in  his  self-deny- 
ing mission,  this  Apostolic  man  died  one  night,  on  his 
knees  by  his  simple  cot,  in  a  lonely  room  in  a  lodging- 
house  in  New  York.  And  the  surging  millions  of 
that  great  city,  revolving  in  the  whirlpool  of  business 
and  pleasure,  knew  not  that  one  "  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy"  had  fallen  in  Israel.  But  Mr.  Smith 
and  the  favored  few  who  had  known  him  mourned  for 
him  as  did  Elisha  for  the  rapt  prophet  when  he  went 
to  Heaven  in  a  chariot  of  fire. 

"  There  are  in  the  loud,  stunning  tide 

Of  human  care  and  crime, 
With  whom  the  melodies  abide 

Of  the  everlasting  chime. 
Who  carry  music  in  their  heart 
Through  dusky  lane  and  wrangling  mart, 

Plying  their  daily  task  with  busier  feet 
Because  their  secret  souls 

A  lowly  strain  repeat." 


WHIT-SUNDAY,  JUNE  9,  1889. 

« 

"  Listen,  sweet  Dove,  unto  my  song, 
And  spread  thy  golden  wings  in  me." 

This  was  a  memorable  day  in  our  friend's  life,  a 
Sabbath's  journey  toward  Heaven.  To  make  it  intel- 
ligible, I  shall  have  to  use  the  personal  pronoun 
more  than  accords  with  my  taste  and  that  of  the 
reader.  On  the  5tli  of  May  it  was  my  lot  to  preach  in 
Christ  Church,  on  the  text  "God  is  love."  The  sub- 
ject seemed  to  take  hold  of  Mr.  Smith  to  a  degree  that 
surprised  me.  He  referred  to  it  repeatedly  during 
my  sojourn  in  his  house,  where  I  was  detained  for 
several  weeks  by  illness.  After  my  return  to  my  own 
home  the  subject  passed  from  my  mind,  until  I  re- 
ceived the  following  letter,  dated  June  10,  1889,  the 
last  letter  he  wrote  : 

Dear  Beothee: — I  have  been  sick  for  several  days  from  a 
complication  which,  though  not  attended  with  danger,  requires 
great  care  for  the  future,  which  is,  of  course,  uncertain.  .  .  . 
I  read  nothing  yesterday  (Whit-Sunday)  but  the  Collect,  Epis- 
tle and  Gospel.  The  last  recalled  a  quotation  I  had  occasion  to 
make  to  you,  which  occurs  in  the  first  verse,  "If  ye  love  Me, 
keep  My  commandments,"  etc.  I  did  not  express  all  I  had  in 
mind,  but  thought  you  would  take  it  as  representing  many 
others  in  our  Lord's  teaching,  and  including  the  great  truth, 
"■  God  is  love,"  which  you  were  enabled  so  truly,  precisely  and 
fully  to  set  forth  as  the  one  great  axiom  of  Christianity.  I 
thought  if  we  could  rest  on  that  simple  representation,  no  more, 
no  less,  we  should  have  all  we  could  desire  for  the  present  and 


58 

the  future.  In  the  continuation  of  this  subject,  the  trait  of 
love  is  especially  repeated,  and  more  fully  represents  the  general 
truth.  Finally,  ''Peace  I  leave  with  you.  My  peace  I  give  unto 
you."  I  was  led  to  consider  the  whole  subject  of  the  meeting  of 
our  Lord  with  Peter,  A  look  such  as  we  can  realize  restored 
the  latter,  and  when  he  stood  before  his  Lord,  silently  waiting 
for  the  greeting  which  he  reverently  believed  was  to  be  pro- 
nounced, what  must  have  been  his  feeling?  "Simon,  son  of 
Jonas  "—what  more  ?  *'  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  "  You  can  readily 
fill  up  the  whole  aspect  of  the  subject.  I  never  saw  it  in  such 
a  light  before.  It  brought  the  tears  to  my  eyes,  and  filled  me 
with  peace.  Then  I  remembered  that  our  Lord  clothed  the 
Decalogue  with  the  garment  of  love.  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul 
(not  to  speak  of  St.  John)  recognized  the  truth  :  *'If  there  be 
any  other  commandment,  it  u  briefly  comprehended  in  the  say- 
ing, Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbar  as  thyself."  There  is  no 
reduction,  no  modification  of  the  one  word  of  the  Gospel,  "  God 
is  love."     Stat  in  eternum. 

Affectionately  }ours, 

George  A.  Smith. 

When  I  read  this  letter,  I  said  to  my  family,  ''  It 
has  an  unearthly  ring  about  it ;  the  prophet  must  be 
putting  on  his  ascension  robes."  The  next  tidings  we 
heard  was  that  he  was  ill,  nigh  unto  death,  and  then 
that  he  was  dead.  His  last  illnes  was  brief  and  in- 
tensely painful,  and  his  death  was  evidently  unex- 
pected to  himself,  so  much  so  that  among  the  few 
words  spoken  in  the  paroxysms  of  pain  was  the  ques- 
tion why  his  attendants  did  not  retire — "  It  must  be 
past  bedtime."  The  popular  creed  craves  a  dramatic 
deathbed  for  the  Christian  like  that  of  a  tragedy  hero 
on  the  stage,  and  estacies  and  raptures  are  thought  to 
attest  a  high  degree  of  grace.     It  is  forgotten  that  out- 


59 

ward  manifestations  are  often  gross  delusions,  as  in  the 
case  of  criminals  of  the  deepest  dye,  who  talk  fluently 
of  going  home  to  glory,  and  call  upon  their  friends  to 
meet  them  in  Heaven,  and  the  like.  I  would  not  un- 
dervalue what  are  called  triumphant  deaths,  if  they 
are  the  consummation  of  holy  lives.  It  was  not  so 
with  the  Master.  Our  admirable  Office  for  the  Sick 
tells  us  truly  that  Christ  went  not  up  to  joy,  but  first 
he  suffered  pain,  so  our  way  to  eternal  joy  is  to  suffer 
here  with  Christ. 

The  chamber  where  the  good  man  meets  his  fate 
is  privileged,  and  we  would  not,  to  gratify  morbid 
curiosity,  invade  that  sanctuary.  I  will  only  lift  the 
veil  so  far  as  to  say  that  in  his  intense  pain  he  would 
say,  in  seeming  remonstrance,  to  his  weeping  family, 
whose  sympathy  for  his  sufferings  oppressed  him, 
"  God's  will  must  be  done."  This  was  Christlike. 
The  sublimest  height  the  human  spirit,  inspired  by 
breath  from  Heaven,  can  reach  is  submission  of  the 
individual  will  to  the  will  of  God.  This  puts  it  in 
harmony  with  the  Divine  order  of  the  universe,  and 
all  things  work  together  for  its  good.  Doubtless,  if 
our  brother  had  been  conscious  that  the  time  of  his  de- 
parture was  at  hand,  the  flickering  lamp,  ere  it  went 
out,  would  have  flashed  some  rays  towards  Heaven 
that  it  would  have  been  pleasing  to  see  and  hear. 
But  such  a  sign  was  not  needed  as  a  seal  to  "  a  living 
epistle,  seen  and  read  of  all  men,"  any  more  than  a  fit- 
ful flush  at  sunset  to  attest  a  long  sunshiny  day. 


60 

The  funeral  took  place  from  CLrist  Church,  so 
rich  in  memories  of  him.  After  the  reading  of  the 
grand  burial  service  by  Dr.  Suter  and  Mr.  Sharpe,  and 
a  brief,  but  appropriate  and  touching  address  by  Dr. 
Packard,  the  Dean  of  the  Seminary,  whose  life  ran 
parallel  with  his  for  half  a  century,  he  was  buried  in 
the  Presbyterian  Cemetery,  by  his  wife,  near  the  tomb 
of  his  father  and  mother.  On  a  marble  stone  will  be 
inscribed  these  words : 

Sacred  to  the  Memory 

OP 

George  A.  Smith, 

Aged  87. 

In   Christ. 

"jBis  turneth  the  shadoiv  of  death  into  morning. — Canticles  ii.  17. 

On  Mrs.  Smith's : 

Sacred  to  the  Memory 

of 

Ophelia  A., 

Wife  of  George  A.  Smith, 

Aged  79. 

In    Christ. 

"  Until  the  day  break,  and  the  shadows  flee  away.^^ — Canticles  ii.  17. 

There  are  some  things  touching  his  relations  to 
his  children  too  sacred  to  be  ex23osed  to  the  public 
eye — his  appreciation  of  the  "love  of  his  daughters, 
who  would  keep  him  away  from  Heaven,  burdened 


61 

here  by  life's  many  sorrows";  of  tlie  devotion  of  his 
sons,  in  their  far-away  homes  in  Oregon  and  California, 
and  of  his  deep  sense  of  their  self-sacrifice  for  his 
comfort ;  how  he  stood  daily  between  them  and  their 
God,  pleading  for  their  weal  here  and  hereafter. 

But  there  are  some  passages  in  his  will  which  I 
cannot  refrain  from  printing,  not  only  as  illustrations 
of  his  character,  but,  as  it  were,  a  sermon  from  beyond 
the  grave,  to  be  often  read  and  pondered  by  those  to 
whom  it  is  addressed  : 

"  No  interest  in  life  is  more  important,  nor  more 
the  subject  of  my  prayers,  than  that  all  my  children 
and  grandchildren  may  respect  the  injunction  and 
realize  the  promise,  ^  If  any  man  will  do  His  will,  he 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God.' 
I  specify  this  saying  of  our  Lord's  because  the  obser- 
vation of  life  has  shown  me  that  the  objection  to  re- 
ligion is  the  life  which  it  enjoins,  and  »o  question  with 
unbelievers  is  decided  against  it,  at  the  start.  I  mean 
the  whole  life  enjoined  by  Christ.  If  we  do  not  know 
or  understand  it  on  a  first  trial,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
practice  what  we  do  know,  and  what  is  plain.  The 
common  sense  of  mankind  renders  it  plain  to  all  men 
that  no  one  will  eyer  be  a  proficient  in  either  knowl- 
edge or  practice  of  a  profession  who  does  not  begin, 
as  it  were,  in  the  dark  as  to  the  future.  What  we  all 
want  is  a  guide  to  lead  us  on,  step  by  stej^,  and  he 
who  will  not  take  the  first  will  never  reach  anything 
beyond." 


02 

The  same  sense  of  delicacy  restrains  me  from 
reproducing  passages  from  the  very  many  letters 
of  condolence  with  the  family,  from  the  clergy,  and 
the  laity  of  both  sexes,  far  and  near,  beautiful  and 
fragrant  as  the  flowers  laid  upon  his  tomb,  but  like 
those  flowers  would  lose  all  their  fragrance  if  applied 
to  other  uses.  But,  fearing  that  looking  at  him 
through  the  magnifying  glass  of  personal  affection,  I 
might  color  my  portrait  of  him  too  highly,  I  have  asked 
the  pastors  of  the  Episcopal  churches  in  Alexandria 
how  he  looked  and  lived  from  their  more  disinterested 
point  of  view.  I  extract  some  paragraphs  from  their 
responses  for  my  own  justification  in  the  public  eye. 

Alexandria,  September  24,  1889. 
My  dear  Slaughter  : — Most  gladly  would  I  do  anything 
to  honor  the  memory  of  our  beloved  friend.  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  tell  yo^l  anything  of  his  life  and  character.  Aside 
from  his  elevated  tone  of  thought  and  feeling,  to  me  the  most 
wonderful  thing  was  his  simplicity  and  unselfishness.  I  cannot 
recall  the  slightest  indication,  during  forty  years,  that  word  and 
manner  did  not  express  his  sincere  meaning.  His  unselfishness 
was  beypnd  anything  that  has  come  under  my  observation  in 
mankind.  I  have  seen  women  who  were  like  him.  But  his 
sympathy  for  the  trouble  of  others,  every  way  better  off  and 
more  comfortable  than  himself,  was  simply  wonderful.  The 
freshness  of  his  interest  in  others  did  not  aba<^e  in  old  age  ;  to 
the  last  he  was  the  one  friend  we  could  'always  feel  sure  would 
share  our  joys  and  sorrows. 

Yours  affectionately, 

Geo.  H.  NoRTO^r, 
St.  PauVs  Church,  Alexandria. 


63 

My  dear  Dr.  Slaughter: — You  have  asked  me  for  a 
brief  statement  of  the  character  of  the  late  Rev.  George  A. 
Smith,  as  it  appeared  to  me  through  his  life  under  my  eye,  in 
this  parish. 

Of  course,  no  man  could  be  associated  with  Mr.  Smith  as  I 
was,  without  being  impressed  with  his  deep  and  consistent  piety. 
As  he  sat  under  my  ministry,  during  the  first  ten  years  of  it,  I 
often  noticed  his  manner,  its  reverence  and  its  humility.  Near 
me  he  sometimes  knelt,  when  his  health  permitted,  at  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  his  voice  of  confession 
was  touching  in  its  simple  and  heartfelt  earnestness.  These 
were  occasions  of  pleasure  to  my  aged  friend,  for  he  felt  that  he 
was  still  doing  somethir)g  for  Him  whom  he  loved  to  serve,  and 
I  am  sure  they  were  reminders  to  me  of  the  truth  of  the  saying, 
"  The  hoary  head  is  a  crown  of  glory,  if  it  be  found  in  the  way 
of  righteousness." 

One  thing  often  struck  me — namely,  the  interest  Mr.  Smith 
took  in  all  things  connected  with  the  welfare  and  honor  of 
Virginia,  and  of  the  whole  country.  He  often  quoted  the 
maxims  of  Washington,  and  dwelt  upon  the  connection  between 
the  following  of  his  advice  and  example,  and  the  safety  of  the 
country.  He  was  indeed,  like  "  Paul,  the  aged,"  full  of  interest 
in  the  things  of  the  day;  no  mere  praiser  of  times  gone  by, 
but  a  strenuous  worker,  cherishing  a  quick  sympathy  and  an 
eager  interest  which  kept  him  young  to  the  end.  This  interest 
in  all  current  history  was  for  the  Church  of  his  love,  as  well  as 
for  his  people  and  country.  He  watched  closely  the  theological 
thought,  and,  though  averse  to  controversy,  would  sometimes, 
as  you  know,  bring  out  of  his  treasures  wise  counsels  for  us 
all.     .     .     . 

I  feel  it  to  be  a  difficult  thing  to  write  as  I  ought  of  this 
good  man.  His  character  as  a  friend  and  father  and  Christian 
is  so  fully  and  beautifully  displayed  in  his  letters,  already  in 
your  hands,  that  I  fear  to  speak  of  his  life  in  these  relations, 
lest  I  should  mar  the  beauty  which  these  witnesses  reveal.  But 
sure  I  am  that  his  like  we  will  not  see  soon  again,  when  we  look 
at  the  combination  of  piety,  wisdom  and  scholarship  which 
marked  him. 

H.  SUTER, 

Christ  Church,  Alexandria. 


64 

Dear  Dr.  Slaughter: — You  ask  me  for  my  conception  of 
the  character  of  Eev.  George  A.  Smith. 

In  a  character  so  symmetrical  as  Mr.  Smith's,  it  is  difficult 
to  single  out  any  salient  points.  There  was  no  one  element 
that  stood  out  prominently  above  the  rest.  I  never  knew  any 
one  whose  character  was  more  uniform.  I  could  say  of  him 
what  Bishop  Burnet  said  of  Archbishop  Leigh  ton,  '^  In  a  familiar 
intercourse,  extending  over  many  years,  I  never  knew  him  to 
say  an  idle  word,  and  I  never  once  saw  him  in  any  other  temper 
but  that  I  wish  to  be  in  in  the  last  moment  of  my  life." 

He  was  very  clear  and  distinct  in  his  theological  convictions. 
He  kept  the  faith  as  he  found  it  in  the  Scriptures  and  in  the 
Articles  of  our  Church.  He  was  a  well-read  theologian,  espe- 
cially in  the  old  English  divines.     .     .     . 

Though  for  many  years  before  his  death  incapable  from  in- 
firmity of  the  active  duties  of  the  ministry,  yet  he  brought  forth 
fruit  in  old  age.  He  was  a  blessing  to  the  Church  and  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived.  Men  pointed  to  him  as  a  "living 
epistle,  known  and  read  of  all  men" — a  living  and  walking 
Bible.  The  city  is  poorer,  this  Church  is  poorer,  the  world  is 
poorer  for  his  loss;  but  what  is  loss  to  us  is  gain  to  him.  He 
has  seen  the  brow  which  was  pierced  for  him.  He  has  been 
joyfully  reunited  to  parents  and  wife  and  children,  who  went 
before  him.     The  grave  is  dark  and  dreary,  but  we  must  look 

beyond. 

Joseph  Packard, 

Dean  of  the  Seminary. 
From  Dr.  McKim : 

My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Smith  began  more  than  twenty 
years  ago,  when,  the  year  after  my  ordination  to  the  priesthood, 
I  entered  on  my  duties  as  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Alexandria. 

Three  words  come  to  me  as  expressive  of  the  most  salient 
features  of  Mr.  Smith's  character — humility,  fidelity,  charity. 
I  never  knew  a  man  who  so  habitually  and  naturally  "  took  the 
lowest  seat."  No  one  could  be  in  his  company  without  perceiv- 
ing in  every  act  and  word  that  he  was  one  of  those  rare  men, 
who  are  really  "  lowly  in  their  own  eyes."  And  so  it  came  to 
pass  that  humility,  of  which  St.  Augustine  says  that  it  is  the 
first,  and  also  the  second,  and  also  the  third  thing  in  religion. 


65 

sat  habitually  upon  his  brow,  *'a  crown  of  glory  and  a  diadem 
of  beauty"  in  the  sight  of  angels  and  men. 

Equally  was  he  characterized  by  fidelity.  Humility,  when 
it  is  genuine,  has  no  kinship  with  timidity.  He  was  not  of  a 
combative  disposition.  The  gaudium  certaminis  was  not  his 
under  any  circumstances.  But  while  he  abhorred  controversy, 
he  was  a  man  of  strong  convictions,  and  courageous  in  defend- 
ing them;  lion-hearted  when  what  he  held  sacred  was  assailed, 
whether  in  sanctuary  of  the  home,  or  of  the  state,  or  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Looking  over  his  long  life  of  eighty-seven 
years,  and  considering  his  relations  to  his  family,  to  his  friends, 
to  the  commonwealth,  to  the  Church  and  to  the  revealed  truth 
of  God,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  he  has  deserved  the  encomium. 
Semper fidelis, — yea,  faithful  unto  death. 

To  humility  and  fidelity  he  added  charity — the  "  charity 
that  sufferetli  long  and  is  kind.^'  Nothing  envious,  nor  unjust, 
nor  harsh,  nor  censorious,  nor  malicious,  could  live  in  the  pres- 
ence of  that  serene  face  of  his,  shining  with/the  light  from  the 
mount  of  God.  He  loved  everything  that  was  good  and  tended 
to  good.  His  interest  and  his  sympathies,  though  most  warmly 
enlisted  in  the  work  of  his  own  communion,  were  not  limited  by 
its  boundaries,  but  went  out  freely  to  all  who  preach  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.  Especially  was  it  true  of  the  great  missionary 
fields  of  Christendom,  in  which  he  took,  to  his  dying  day,  a 
lively  interest,  and  for  which  he  not  seldom  employed  his  pen. 
His  heart  never  grew  old  in  its  capacity  to  sympathize  with  his 
brethren  who  were  laboring  for  the  spread  of  Christ's  Gospel. 
His  home  was  open  and  his  hospitality  was  free  equally  to  the 
stranger  from  the  far  East,  who  came  seeking  light  that  he 
might  carry  it  back  to  Persia,  or  to  Armenia,  and  to  the  Jewish 
convert  who  heard  the  Lord  calling  him  to  go  to  the  Jewish 
colony  in  New  York  with  the  message  of  the  Messiah,  and  to 
live,  as  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  lived,  by  the  sweat  of 
his  brow.  The  friendless  found  in  him  their  friend,  and  the 
homeless  in  his  house  a  welcome,  when  they  came  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord. 

Lord  Peterborough  is  reported  to  have  said  of  Fenelon, 
"  If  I  stay  in  his  house  any  longer  I  shall  become  a  Christian 
in  spite  of  myself."     We  may  truly  say  of  Mr.  Smith,  that  to 


66 

stay  in  his  house  was  to  have  before  one's  eyes  a  most  persuasive 
evidence  of  the  power  of  the  Christian  religion.  Only  two  days 
ago,  at  a  large  meeting  for  men  in  Washington,  a  man  who  had 
formerly  been  a  tradesman  in  Alexandria,  said  to  me,  "  If  ever  a 
man  went  to  Heaven  from  that  town,  it  was  the  Kev.  George  A. 
Smith/'  K.  H.  McKm, 

Church  of  the  Epiphmiy,  Washington. 

From  the  Rev.  Henry  Sharpe  : 

Perhaps  there  are  few  who  pass  into  Paradise  to  meet  more 
sweet  surprises  than  that  veteran  soldier  of  the  Cross,  the  Rev. 
George  A.  Smith,  A  man  of  strong  sense  and  wisdom,  of  rare 
courtesy  and  delicacy,  of  broad  culture,  resolute,  tender  and 
gentle  as  any  woman,  such  was  his  lowliness  of  heart  that  he 
was  always  retiring,  with  an  utter  absence  of  self-assertion,  and 
never  realized  how  helpful  his  learning,  his  counsels,  his  sym- 
pathy had  proved  to  those  who  sought  the  blessings  ready  to  be 
bestowed.  He  knows  now  how  much  illumination  came  from 
the  daily  shining  of  his  life  ;  at  last  he  has  been  told  of  the  com- 
fort imparted  to  many  a  heavy-laden  soul,  and  has  met  a 
welcome  from  those  he  won  for  Christ  who  went  home  before 
him. 

"  Humility  is  like  a  star  that  trembles  while  it  shines, 
And  through  its  trembling  brightest  seems  to  be." 

For  our  part,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  higher  and  no 
more  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  dear  old  man  so  many 
of  us  loved,  than  to  say  that  humility  was  the  most  consj^icuous 
grace  of  his  Christian  character — "like  the  veil  thrown  over  the 
face  of  beauty,  that  brightens  the  loveliness  it  seeks  to  hide." 
Even  Christ  pleased  not  himself,  and  our  aged  father  stead- 
fastly followed  the  Master.  His  hope  of  active  ministry  crushed 
before  his  armor  had  been  well  tried,  his  faith  strained  by  the 
consciousness  of  power  that  he  was  seemingly  forbidden  to  ex- 
ercise, so  he  bent  to  the  will  of  the  Chief  Bishop  of  the  Church 
he  cherished,  and  made  the  rich  offering  of  a  life  of  love  and 
patience.  But  at  the  dawning  of  the  day,  June  28,  he  had  an 
abundant  entrance  into  the  eternal  rest,  and  saw  the  Saviour 
he  so  long  had  served. 

Henky  Sharpe, 
Grace  Church,  Alexandria. 


67 

From  Rev.  Dr.  Sprigg,  formerly  rector  of  Grace 

Churcli,  Alexandria : 

*'It  is  with  pain  and  sorrow  we  record  the  death  of  Kev. 
George  A.  Smith,  which  took  place  in  his  home  in  Alexandria  on 
Friday  morning,  June  28,  in  the  eighty-seventh  year  of  his  age. 
'  With  pain  and  sorrow/  we  say,  but  only  because  we  shall  see 
his  face  no  more  in  this  life,  and  not  because  he  will  see  the 
face  of  his  Lord  in  glory  and  in  beauty ;  for  his  life  had  been 
one  of  simple  faith  in  Christ  and  of  living  beauty  towards  his 
fellow-men,  from  his  boyhood  to  his  death  having  been  marked 
with  the  seal  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  through  whom  he  lived  the 
life  of  faith  and  died  the  death  of  a  sincere  believer  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  by  whom  he  has  been  received  into  the  everlasting 
habitations." 

Dr.  Walker,  of  tlie  Theological  Seminary,  says : 

"As  to  Mr.  Smith's  general  character,  I  always  found  him 
equal  to  his  reputation,  a  wise,  judicious  adviser,  sound  in  his 
judgments  and  views  as  to  Church  matters  and  parties,  and 
not  carried  away  by  words  of  temporary  excitement." 

Let  me  conclude  tliese  testimonials  with  the  art- 
less tribute  of  his  colored  servants,  whom  he  had  freed 
long  ago,  but  who  served  him  lovingly  to  the  last. 

One  said,  "  I  have  been  looking  up  into  master's 
face  all  my  life,  and  now  he  is  gone."  And  another 
responded,  "I  never  knew  but  one  who  never  had 
spells  of  temper,  and  that  was  master,"  as  they  per- 
sistently called  him. 

Thus,  by  the  mouth  of  more  than  two  or  three 
competent  and  disinterested  eye-witnesses,  my  words 
are  confirmed,  and  I  am  warranted  in  commending  to 
our  clergy  and  laity,  and  to  all  Christian  people,  the 
example  of  our  Virginian  partriarch,  who,  having  all 


68 

his  life  taken  the  lowest  seat,  has  been  called  by  the 
Master  to  "go  up  higher,"  and  sit  down  with  Abra- 
ham and  Isaac  and  all  the  saints,  at  the  marriage  sup- 
per of  the  Lamb,  who  will  feed  him  and  lead  him  to 
the  fountains  of  living  water ;  and  God  has  wiped 
away  all  tears  from  his  eyes. 


LITEKARY  EEMAINS. 

The  chief  literary  remains  of  Mr.  Smith  were 
printed  in  the  columns  of  the  Philadelphia  Recorder 
and  the  Southern  Clviircliman.  As  a  register  of  passing 
events  and  a  critic  of  current  opinions,  a  religious 
newspaper  has  the  whole  world  as  its  field,  and  em- 
bracing all  the  branches  and  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  good  and  evil,  is  a  rich  depository  from 
which  might  be  culled  materials  for  a  miscellaneous 
library. 

In  the  Theological  Hepertory  and  in  the  columns 
of  other  contemporary  periodicals  are  sermons,  ad- 
dresses and  essays  of  merit  on  divers  subjects. 

"  A  Scriptural  Examination  of  the  Church  Cate- 
chism, designed  as  a  Plain  Manual  of  Divinity  for 
Sunday-school,  Catechetical  and  Bible-classes,  and 
General  Use.  By  Joshua  Dixon.  Revised  and  adapt- 
ed to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
with  Notes  and  Appendix,  by  the  Bev.  George  A. 
Smith,  A.M."  Philadelphia :  W.  Marshall  &  Co.,  1836. 
18mo,  pp.  231.  The  English  edition  of  Dixon  is  one 
of  the  best  manuals,  but  Mr.  Smith's  American  edition 
is  enriched  by  much  new  matter,  including  historical 
notes  and  illustrations,  all  adapted  to  the  Church  in 
America. 


70 

Dr.  Suter  and  Dr.  Packard  have  both  spoken  with 
approbation  of  the  article  of  his  in  the  Seminarij 
Magazine  on  "The  Sabbath,  the  Lord's  Day, — in 
which  he  refuted  some  views  of  Dr.  Hessey.  In 
this  article  Dr.  Packard  says  he  laid  great  stress  upon 
the  testimony  of  Eusebius,  "  That  the  word  Christ,  by 
the  New  Covenant,  translated  and  transferred  the  feast 
of  the  Sabbath  to  the  saving  Lord's  day."  This 
article  shows  that  the  force  of  his  mind  in  his  eighty- 
sixth  year  was  not  abated.  Dr.  Packard  also  signalizes, 
amonof  his  other  communications  to  the  Southern 
Churchman,  some  articles  on  the  genuineness  of  the 
book  of  Daniel. 

Mr.  Smith  contributed  to  Mrs.  Pitman's  "  Memoir 
of  Mary  B.  Baldwin"  an  appendix,  entitled  "Remarks 
on  the  Missionary  Work  of  the  American  Church." 
Mr.  Smith's  letters  in  his  later  years  show  to  the  last 
how  he  kept  abreast  of  the  doings  of  the  day,  and  in 
living  sympathy  with  the  fortunes  of  his  friends  and 
relations,  and  with  all  important  movements  in  Church 
and  State.  The  secession  of  Bishop  Cummins  filled 
him  with  grief  and  amazement,  as  a  needless  and 
profitless  rending  of  the  Church,  and  it  called  out  all 
the  loyalty  that  was  in  his  heart.  He  was  impatient, 
too,  with  the  revisers  of  the  Prayer  Book,  each  one, 
with  his  psalm  and  doctrine,  "  thinking  he  could  im. 
prove  the  work  of  the  giants  who  built  this  wonderful 
work,  and  sealed  it  with  their  blood."  Granting  that 
it  was  susceptible  of  enrichment,  the  good  attained 


71 

would  be  a  small  compensation  for  unsettling  the 
minds  of  tlie  people  and  keeping  our  Ark  at  sea, 
where  she  was  liable  to  be  driven  about  by  every 
wind  of  doctrine,  and  "anchored  ne'er  shall  be."  He 
thought  it  well  to  remember  that  the  General  Conven- 
tion was  not  the  Church,  and  that  the  usefulness  of 
the  Church  depends  most  of  all  upon  the  blesing  of 
the  Divine  Head  in  giving  spiritual  life  to  the  mem- 
bers. 

He  had  a  righteous  indignation  at  the  Romanizers 
in  the  Church,  and  thought  it  was  humiliating  that  so 
many  thought  they  should  be  acknowledged  to  be 
harmless.  But  he  doubted  if  it  was  possible  to  guard 
against  the  devices  with  which  they  evade  the  laws  of 
the  Church  and  shelter  themselves  against  their  penal- 
ties. The  remedy  for  our  troubles  was  not  so  much 
legislative,  but  in  prayer  and  work.  If  each  one 
would  do  his  duty  in  his  sphere  with  existing  facilities, 
it  would  soon  work  all  the  change  we  want,  "  Physi- 
cian, heal  thyself,  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly,"  etc. 

He  sympathized  with  the  Bishops  in  their  arduous 
work,  and  said,  "I  think  the  office  of  Diocesan 
Bishop  is  the  most  undesirable  possible.  In  general, 
to  do  his  duty  he  must  sacrifice  himself,  and  if  he  does 
so  he  will  have  his  reward,  but  not  here."  He  quoted 
Dr.  Milnor  as  saying  that  he  had  observed  that  the 
piety  of  many  when  they  became  Bishop  seems  to 
deteriorate,  and  that  he  had  none  to  spare. 


Y2 

He  thought  that  the  Virginia  Council  of  1874 
was  a  marvel  of  wise  conduct.  Dr.  Norton,  a  man 
not  given  to  extravagant  utterances,  says  reverently 
that  the  repoi't  of  the  committee  must  have  been 
framed  with  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  Dr.  Sprigg 
thinks  it  is  the  wisest  paper  he  ever  read.  He  was 
shocked  at  what  seemed  to  him  the  utter  abandonment, 
by  our  Council  of  1879,  of  principles  which  he  sup- 
posed were  common  to  all  Evangelical  men  and  mod- 
erate High  Churchmen.  He  thought  the  laity  would 
never  abandon  their  constitutional  right  to  share  in 
the  legislation  of  the  Church,  etc.  It  haunted  him  day 
and  night. 

Another  subject  which  gave  him  great  concern 
was  the  wave  of  worldliness  which  has  flooded  the 
Church  of  Grod,  in  such  contrast  with  the  times  of  re- 
freshing which  marked  the  old  Conventions  and 
associations. 

"  Explain  it  as  you  may,  and  make  all  the  reser- 
vations, if  any,  it  will  bear,  the  truth  remains  that  the 
fi-iendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God.  But 
self-denial  is  the  essential  mark  of  the  Christian  life 
and  the  plain  requisition  of  our  Lord,  while  to  avoid 
it  to  the  utmost  extent  within  the  limits  of  salvation 
is  the  aim  of  the  world  and  of  so-called  Christians 
conformed  to  the  world." 

As  an  example  of  how  times  are  changed,  he  re- 
calls an  incident  in  1825,  when  he  was  going  in  a 
steamboat  from  Baltimore  to  the  General  Convention 


73 

in  Philadelphia.  Among  the  passengers  he  mentions 
Bishops  Kemp  and  Bowen,  and  Mr.  Ravenscroft,  who 
was  going  to  be  consecrated  ;  Rev.  Messrs.  Meade, 
Mcllvaine,  AVilmer,  Hawley,  etc.  In  the  evening  all 
the  passengers  met  in  the  cabin.  Mr.  Meade  gave  out 
a  hymn  and  read  the  twentieth  chapter  of  Acts,  and 
Mr.  Mcllvaine  prayed  fervently,  the  company  being 
all  respectful  and  attentive.  He  mourned  that  the 
State  of  Virginia,  from  a  complication  of  untoward 
events  which  her  best  people  could  not  control,  had 
the  stain  of  repudiation  cast  upon  her  escutcheon. 

Such  are  a  few  items  from  his  letters  about  im- 
portant current  events  of  Church  and  State.  To  de- 
scend from  great  to  small  matters,  I  will  give  one  item 
of  his  interest  in  the  latter.  When  I  was  writing  the 
"  Life  of  Bishop  Meade  "  I  had  occasion  to  reproduce 
a  quotation  from  Ovid's  Tristia,  which  the  Bishop  had 
repeated  to  me  on  the  eve  of  my  going  to  Europe. 
I  happened  to  mention  it  to  Mr.  Smith  in  a  letter,  to 
which  he  replied  thus  : 

"  I  stepped  up  (from  Alexandria)  this  morning 
to  Washington,  and  found  in  the  library  of  Congress 
a  beautiful  London  edition  of  the  Tristia,  and  copied 
your  quotation  carefully,  with  special  attention  to 
punctuation.  I  have  two  editions  of  the  Metamor- 
phosis, containing  one  (the  tenth)  Elegy  of  the  Tristia. 
I  doubt  if  they  are  in  any  American  edition.  I 
thought  it  worth  while  for  you,  and  for  the  Bishop's 
classical  reputation,  and  I  do  not  like  to  stay  puzzled 


74 

myself.  I  enclose  some  notes  from  the  London  edition, 
and  the  response  of  Ovid's  wife,  which  is  (as  all  is) 
very  touching." 

This  calls  to  mind  Michael  Angelo's  ingenious 
device,  representing  an  old  man  in  a  go-cart  with  an 
hour-glass  upon  it,  with  this  inscription,  Ancora 
imparo.     The  patriarch  pupil  will  be  learning  still. 


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012  01245  4916 


